Niels Frederiksen
Danish professional football manager / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Niels Frederiksen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈfʁeðˀʁeksn̩]; born 5 November 1970) is a Danish professional football manager. He last worked as the head coach of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF.
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Niels Frederiksen | ||
Date of birth | (1970-11-05) 5 November 1970 (age 53) | ||
Place of birth | Odense, Denmark | ||
Managerial career | |||
Years | Team | ||
2009–2013 | Lyngby | ||
2013–2015 | Esbjerg | ||
2015–2019 | Denmark U21 | ||
2019–2022 | Brøndby |
Frederiksen began his career as a head coach at Lyngby Boldklub in 2009 after having spent almost two decades as a youth coach in B 1913, B.93, and Lyngby. He remained in the post as head coach, and later manager, for the club for nearly four years. He then coached Esbjerg, leading them to a fifth place in the domestic league as well as their best European result ever: the Europa League round of 32 where the club was knocked out by Fiorentina. He was relieved of his duties in 2015. He was later put in charge of the Denmark national under-21 team, before being appointed head coach of Brøndby in June 2019, replacing Alexander Zorniger. He would go on to lead the club to their first Danish Superliga title in 16 years in the 2020–21 season.
Frederiksen is noted for his exceptional work with young talents, developing players such as Andreas Christensen, Andreas Bjelland, Yussuf Poulsen and Christian Nørgaard in Lyngby, and Martin Braithwaite at Esbjerg.[1] He has furthermore shown flexibility in regards to formations, employing a 3–4–3 formation at Denmark U21,[1] but also utilising a classic 4–4–2.[2] In Brøndby, Frederiksen started out employing a 4–3–3, but since adjusted this to a dynamic 3–5–2 with attacking wingbacks, Andreas Maxsø as the anchor in defense and a fast and more stationary centre forward as the main forwards.[3][4] Frederiksen is a proponent of pressing, in what he has called a balanced press. This implies striking a balance between immediately attempting to win back possession high up the pitch, and falling back and regrouping in defence.[5][1][6]
Frederiksen has cited his main influences inside football as José Mourinho "for his arrogance", Sir Alex Ferguson "for his long time success" and Jürgen Klopp, due to his development of young players and his tactics. Outside football, he has been inspired by Socrates and the 2011 film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt.[7][8]