Cathinka Tandberg 2023: The promising 19 y/o forward on the verge of her senior debut for Norway – scout report

Cathinka Tandberg is a 19-year-old forward who plays for Linköping in Damallsvenskan, Sweden’s top division.

Her form in the competition earned her a first call-up to the senior Norwegian national team for their upcoming Nations League fixtures against France on October 27th and October 31st. Norway currently sit at the bottom of their group behind France, Portugal and Austria.

In this scout report and tactical analysis, we will provide analysis of some of the strengths and weaknesses in Cathinka’s game and how she might be used within this Norway team’s tactics to improve on their form. We also take a look at the potential Cathinka has to become a very dangerous forward on a more global scale.

In possession

First, we will look at how Cathinka plays within Linköping’s system. As the diagram below illustrates, Linkoping has generally played in a 3-4-3 system, 47% throughout the season, with the significant difference between the 3-4-2-1 and 3-4-3 being the average positions of the two wingers.

They have also deployed a 3-4-1-2 a further 20% and a 4-2-3-1 12% of the time. Although the team shape around Cathinka may vary, her role tends to be very consistent, often deployed as a typical central striker. Now that we are more familiar with her role within the team let’s look at some critical aspects of her game in the attacking phase.

One of her most impressive attributes is her ability to score effectively. She demonstrated several different scoring methods, whether with her right foot or her head. What was most impressive is her attacking off-the-ball movement, which enabled her to be in positions to score goals.

Here is an example of Cathinka’s ability to time runs effectively to finish off goals. You can see that as soon as the ball is played out wide with Lisa Bjork, she’s thinking how can I get on the end of this cross? Then, accordingly, making the forward run. The most impressive thing is how she is patient with it as you see several players rush and try to get there too early, but she waits for the play to fully develop before being in a position to be on the end of the cross for the goal.

In this example, you see her identify this gap in the opposition line, and she runs straight through the middle of it. The ball is played into the box, and Cathinka can head the ball into the top corner; perhaps the most impressive aspect of this goal is that the header is actually made with her leaning backwards, yet she is still able to have the body control to generate enough power to guide the ball into the top corner.

This may well be her most impressive goal, demonstrating how much power she can produce from an off-balance platform. In this example, she receives the ball off balance, moving backwards, takes one touch and then rips the ball into the bottom left corner with little to no back lift.

Her impressive ability to score also plays an integral part in the build-up and developing attacks in the final third. Her being so strong on the ball and able to hold off defenders with her back to goal creates time for her to progress attacks and create goalscoring chances.

In this scenario, you can see Cathinka is passed the ball with her back to the goal via teammate Cornelia Kapocs. After some quick one-touch interplay, she drops the ball off to the on-rushing Yuka Momiki, who plays the ball out wide to Stina Lennartson, who plays the ball into the box and eventually, the ball falls to Cathinka for a tap-in finish.

What impresses most about this move was that she was an important member at the start of the attack, then her first thought, after she’d made the pass, was to get forward and be in space to be a threat to the opposition and see how much space she can find at the back post for this tap-in finish.

Here is an example of how Cathinka can use her movement to get in behind the defence and create dangerous goalscoring opportunities for her team. She identifies the big disconnect in the opposition’s shape and runs straight through the middle of it, running diagonally so she can be in a position to receive the ball from her teammate. Then she is going to drive down the line for a bit before playing a low-driven ball across the box to her teammate Kapocs, who’s arriving on the back post for a tap-in.

Out of Possession

The next aspect of Cathinka’s game we will look at is her role on the defensive side of the ball. Now, this is a side of the game which Cathinka engages with using her strength and size to put defenders under considerable pressure, and several times, she was able to bully them off the ball or force them into mistakes.

This is an excellent example of the critical role Cathinka can play in the pressing game, with her starting position being on the opposition’s left centre-back.

She then uses the ball across to the goalkeeper as a trigger to engage vitally. As she approaches the ‘keeper, she makes sure first to cut off the option of any ball back across the goal back to the left centre-back to limit the goalkeeper’s options and force her to move onto her right foot.

This then forces her to attempt a long ball under this intense pressure and with no other real options. However, Cathinka gets a foot on the clearance with her slide tackle; she can then pick up the loose ball and find a teammate who gets a shot away.

Here is an excellent example of how she can bully defenders off the ball with a throw-in being played back to the opposition centre-back. This triggers Cathinka to press the ball, and she simply pushes her opponent off the ball with seeming ease. After winning the ball, she drives forward before attempting to catch the goalkeeper off guard with a long-range shot that goes wide.

Transition

Cathinka is integral to Linköping’s transition from defence-attack as she can be an outlet to hold up possession and bring other teammates into the game. She is the perfect option for this role as she has the aerial ability to header or flick balls onto teammates, but she has also demonstrated a good variety of flicks from balls played into her feet.

Above is an example of Cathinka being an essential outlet; as Linköping have just won the ball, the right wing-back drives forwards on the ball and passes to Cathinka with her back to the goal, and she lays it off to the on-rushing Momiki. Possession can be retained, and they are then able to reset.

In the above example, Cathinka demonstrates her confidence and variety in her link-up play with the ball being played into her; with her back to the goal, she flicks the ball out to the wide right player with a first-time right-footed chop pass.

Along with her ability to hold up the ball herself, she can drive forward on the ball herself, which is particularly useful when she has just bullied defenders off the ball.

In the above situation, you can see her importance when driving forward. After just bullying the centre-back off the ball, she gets ahead into a shooting position without support.

Although her role in the attack-defence transition isn’t as significant, there is evidence of her working hard off the ball to help out her team when others are out of position.

In this above example, you can see how her team is short for numbers at the back and how she then works to get back and in the end, she makes a slide tackle to win the ball back and prevent the shot from causing any problems for her team.

Strengths

I have already outlined several abilities that Cathinka has that make her such a dangerous player, for example, her ability to score consistently with an average xG of 0.65 per 90, already at such a young age.

Cathinka has many strengths, but perhaps her most significant strength is her physical size and strength. There are multiple examples of how she can use her body to push off defenders or roll them to create space for herself.

The ball has been thrown in from the right side in this situation. Cathinka has an opponent behind her, and she can use her body to roll her and get goalside of her opponent and play a ball across the box, which puts the ball in a dangerous area.

In this above situation, the ball is played into her feet with her back to the goal. The opposition defender comes in and tries to hack away at her from behind; however, Cathinka takes the contact and still plays the ball towards teammates. We would note that in Damallsvenskan, she is often afforded too much space and time.

At a higher level, defenders will get closer and more physical, which there is evidence she can cope with, but just not challenged at a consistent enough level in open play, to be sure.

Her work rate was also something that will hold her in good stead throughout her career. This ability to force mistakes from opponents and be able to be in a position to capitalise on these mistakes regularly can really separate the top from the rest.

Areas for improvement

Although there are a lot of positives to Cathinka’s skillset, she is still only 19, and there are several things she can work on to take her game to another level. One of these ways is to develop a more potent left foot. Currently, only 1 out of 13 Damallsvenskan in 2023 have come from her left foot.

I accept that her right foot is so powerful and is such a dangerous weapon to be used, but top defenders will force you to play on your left foot if you just become too one-dimensional, so developing a left foot would keep defenders guessing more.

Above is an example of a time when she has been forced onto her left foot after initially trying to cut in onto her right foot. In this example, she strikes the ball cleanly but hits the ball straight at the goalkeeper and is lucky that the ball spins into the back of the net. If she could develop this, she would be even more dangerous.

The next aspect that Cathinka can evolve is to be calmer in front of goal, particularly when it comes to the six-yard box, as there are several occasions where she gets on the end of a cross. Still, it lacks that calm head to just side foot it confidently into the back of the net. The positive side is that she consistently gets into these goalscoring positions, though.

In the above example, although she scores; it’s an excellent example of how, despite the ball being played across the box from right to left, she swings at the ball with her right foot, which means that she is less able to adjust and make a clean connection and the keeper nearly works across to save it but certainly gets a touch on the ball.

Conclusion

Although raw at the moment, her ability to strike powerfully and consistently with her right foot and strength on the ball make her a real asset in possession. At the same time, her attitude and off-the-ball work rate make her a nightmare for opposition defenders to deal with. She can be an elite player if she develops more composure and various goalscoring types.

All this considered, Cathinka Tandberg has a promising career ahead of her and, at just 19 years of age, has already asserted herself as one of the leading players in Damallsvenskan.