© Tiina Pirilä
TPS head coach Jonathan Johansson was already involved in Rovaniemi when TPS claimed an important 3-2 away win, but on Thursday the new head coach is facing a home debut. Johansson opened many of his thoughts on Teps’s present and future in a video interview conducted by the club (the whole interview at the end of the story).
TPS will host today, Thursday, FC Honkaa at Veritas Stadium. After a long break, Johansson will return to the home crowd, this time as head coach.
– There will definitely be excitement when stepping into Veritas Stadium. It’s a great place to play football. Tepsi fans have been nicely involved and hopefully even stronger at home now. I hope it will be a great evening, Johansson says.
Then to the point. The only goal for TPS this season is to maintain a league seat. Tommi Pikkarainen was quick to make room for Johansson as the Ball Club season started quietly. Johansson is well aware of where TPS is currently going. The RoPS victory was very important, both in terms of the standings and the intellectual side.
Now Johansson is leaving to develop the team according to his own taste. The national team legend, who has represented Finland 107 times, has identified the most important development targets for his team.
– We don’t have too many players in full nineties. It’s no one’s fault. It is affected by many things, such as injuries and this corona break. Fortunately, there are five substitutions that can change a lot of players during a match.
– We also need to be better with long attacks. We need to be able to hold the ball better. It’s one thing we’ve focused more on this week that we’ll be able to keep the ball right in midfield and offensive, Johansson notes.
TPS strengthened his coaching team after Johansson came under an interesting name when Daniel Rantanen began work on data analytics. Rantanen was found in Johansson’s relationship, and the head coach is very pleased that the club will be able to make better use of the information obtained from the game.
– Today, the game becomes so much data and information, it is difficult for the head coach to do it alone and understand where that information comes from, how to use it and how to tell the team about it. I immediately saw that there is a shortage of it and we need such a person. He (Rantanen) is really qualified in that.
– In the beginning, his task is to focus on special situations, but in the future we also want to use him in player profiling and player purchases. Currently, he is helping to analyze the opponent and our own players, Johansson opened Rantanen’s job description.
© Tiina Pirilä
Johansson has enough work at TPS. Photo: Tiina Pirilä, TPS.
Yes, in player purchases. Johansson currently has a mediocre betting league team that should be held in the league. Johansson praises his group, but it is clear that the head coach hopes that the club management will also provide funds for purchases. In TPS, however, you have to remember the harsh realities, the Ball Club doesn’t actually swim in money.
– I’ll get to know the team again. There are a lot of good and promising friends out there. We have certain shortcomings in the player group. I also have in mind the types of players I would like to bring here. You also have to be realistic. First of all, it is difficult to get good players to this place, in addition, the budget affects it. These two things a little dictate it.
Johansson would like to find players with TPS backgrounds. That’s what the Veikkausliiga is all about. Since the beginning of the season, TPS’s old players have scored goals for their new clubs.
– If you can find your own player or your own junnu or a former own player who would be in a hurry and have a league experience, then I would prefer such players to this place. They would be used to Tepsi, the league and this environment. There’s always a small risk involved when bringing in a whole new player. I still don’t rule it out, Johansson points out.
It is easy to feel from Johansson’s interview that a completely new era is beginning in a certain way at the Turku Ball Club. It is still impossible to say where this will lead, but the first steps have been promising. Or would the aimlessness that had finally hovered over the Ball Society be coming to an end?
You can watch Jonatan Johansson’s interview in its entirety below. If you don’t see the video, you can watch it from here.
Also read: Ilmari Niskanen’s exhaustive description of the SJK leveler: “The game was quite a dead end * aa”