Hellberg’s attack: “I’m tired of hearing that…”
Kim Hellberg is tired.
He’s tired of everyone being tired.
– It’s a thing in Swedish football that journalists and players say they’re tired, he says.
Kim Hellberg gathers the Hammarby players and stands in a circle. Then his explanation begins. It’s hard to hear what he’s saying exactly, but in its entirety it’s about fatigue.
When he meets the assembled media corps, the 37-year-old is asked what it was about. He wasn’t entirely prepared for the topic to be brought up, but then he went on the attack.
– I’m tired of hearing that people are tired and that journalists say so. It’s become a thing that players and journalists say they are tired. Our players have never said it, but I read about it all the time, he says.
Hellberg continues:
– I don’t want my players to be tired. Then they’ll have to tell me they are.
Hellberg points to the fact that fatigue is used as an excuse, that the question is often asked by journalists, and that many players often talk about being tired.
According to him, a lot of it is about the mental aspect, setting patterns and creating routines. At the same time, he himself wants to trigger his players.
– I’m starting a fire in different ways, and mentioning teams that have been bad at it. I also mention the entire journalistic corps, I think you’re pathetic. You only ask about things like that, the players themselves have been bad at removing it.
What do you think is the reason then, that everyone is tired all the time?
– It’s that you talk about it. The brain works like that, if you try to say you’re tired, the first thing you do when you wake up is often that you become tired.
check TV special only about Hammarby – with Mikael Hjelmberg abplus
Being teased if you complain about fatigue
Jusef Erabi believes that you shouldn’t say you’re tired, and Nahir Besara explains that you’re being poked.
– I’m always tough. Everything always comes down to leadership, it’s important to build in a mentality of not seeing yourself as defeated or seeing it as difficult, says Hellberg.
He continues:
– We love being out in Europe and playing matches. But if you’re tired and say so, there’s a greater chance that it will show in your body and you’ll get injured. It’s not just a coincidence, a lot is up here.
When asked if they have consciously worked to ensure that players complain less, Hellberg replies:
– Yes. They play out the situations in training, no one raises their hand or calls for offside. You probably don’t see that in most teams, it’s a mentality that we train to get better and we don’t take shortcuts.
– The worst thing I know is when players stop and think it’s offside, and then you’ve seen that it’s not offside. That’s the worst thing I know. You create behaviors of finishing work and getting better at running, he concludes.
Hammarby next faces Halmstad, at 3:00 PM on Saturday.
