Meet Jesper Sørensen, the Whitecaps’ new head coach

Meet Jesper Sørensen, the Whitecaps’ new head coach

It has been a long time coming, but Vancouver Whitecaps were finally able to unveil their new head coach on Tuesday morning, 50 days after firing their last one and just a few hours before embarking on their pre-season tour to Marbella in Spain. 51-year-old Jesper Sørensen comes into the fold as the new man at the helm, after spending his whole professional football career – both as player and coach – in his native Denmark. His history is one that is not well known to many here in Canada, so AFTN will take a deep-dive into who Sørensen is, what fans can expect of him, and how he can maybe take this Whitecaps team to the next level.

Getting to Know The Man from Aarhus

At his initial press conference, the Danish coach looked composed, focused, if not a tad reserved. When he spoke to the media, he did not share the same boisterous and candid way of speaking that they were used to from his predecessor. Yet, he did feel comfortable enough to crack a smile and a few jokes, and warm himself to those who were so eager to meet this new-and-mysterious head coach.

“I’ll start out here by saying that I’m very excited here,” Sørensen began at the start of his availability. “I think it’s great being in Vancouver. I’ve been in Danish football for the entirety of my career, both as a player and also as a coach, but now I’m very happy to get the experience to now be in MLS, in the great city of Vancouver and also in the great country of Canada.”

Sørensen was born in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark with a population of nearly 300,000, and did not stray far from it for the majority of his career. He began in the youth ranks of his hometown club Aarhus Gymnastikforening (AGF) from the age of ten until he signed a professional contract with them. He then went on to have three stints with AGF throughout his playing career, also featuring for regional team Ikast FC, then first division side Akademisk Boldklub Gladsaxe (AB) and Danish powerhouse FC Copenhagen in between them. As a player, Sørensen was a seasoned midfielder that made over 300 professional appearances at club level, and featured 30 times for Denmark at various youth levels up to Under-21.

Sørensen mentioned in his conference that midfield players were his “weak spot” since he himself was one, and looked forward to working with the various talented midfielders that the Whitecaps had on offer like Ryan Gauld, Stuart Armstrong, and Andres Cubas.

After hanging up his boots with AGF, he then quickly took up a spot as assistant coach at the club in 2009, which he held until 2013 when he got given the opportunity to become the head coach of then second division side Silkeborg IF. In his debut season, Sørensen led Silkeborg to a division title, securing them silverware and promotion to the Superliga. However, after a poor points return in the top flight, he was let go by Silkeborg in December of 2014. He then briefly came back to AGF as an assistant before taking over another second division side in FC Fredericia. With Fredericia, the Danish coach went on a historic cup run in the 2017-18 season, defeating first division sides AGF, HB Køge, and Aalborg BK on the way before getting knocked out at the semi-final stage to his ex-team Silkeborg by an own goal.

However, Sørensen really came to prominence in the 2020’s, when he became the coach of the Denmark U21s while also keeping his spot as assistant coach at Brøndby IF. During his time with the U21’s, he helped develop many of Denmark’s future prospects, such as Brighton midfielder Matt O’Reilly, Leicester City duo Victor Kristiansen and Mats Hermansen, and RB Salzburg’s Mohamed Daramy. With these players, Sørensen nearly qualified Denmark to the 2023 UEFA Under-21 European Championship, just coming short after losing to Croatia on penalties after two legs in the qualification playoffs.

Yet, it was his latest job at Brøndby IF that should come to mind when evaluating Sørensen. Coming into the job in 2023, the Aarhus-native finished a surprising second in the Superliga, losing the title on the last day of the season after being defeated 3-2 by his hometown club of AGF. He finished that season with a record of 18W-6L-8D, boasting the second-best defence and goal difference and third-best goals scored in the Superliga that year. He was let go in December of last year after a poor start to the season, which found Brøndby IF in fifth place by the time he was replaced.

A Welcome Sense of Danish Pragmatism & Control

A massive question going into his first presser was about what fans and media could expect from him in terms of playing style and tactics. Both are used to a very specialized and idealistic style of play under Vanni Sartini, one that both awed and frustrated observers depending on the day. But under Sørensen, it seems that the Whitecaps will be looking to play a more controlled and practical style of football than what they were used to.

From the off, Sørensen wanted to dispel any talk about a specific tactic or formation that he was going to impose on the team.

“When we talk about formations, if there were a superior formation, everybody would play it”, said Sørensen. “So I’m actually a guy that looks into what do we have in competence in the team. I can say ‘okay, we play a 4-3-3 with wide wingers’ but if we don’t have anybody [that fits that] then that would be stupid.”

“If we have players suited for something better, that’s what we’re going to find out. We’re not going to change the roster because we need to find two wingers. We are going to play with whatever we think is the best for the team, and then we’ll find the formation that fits.”

Already, Sørensen is distinguishing himself from his predecessor. Sartini, as likeable as a man as he was, had a rigid-if-not-stubborn way of playing that he refused to waver from. His principles were set in stone, and players had to re-learn how to play in their position to fit into his idealized and complex philosophy. Sørensen seems open to trying new tactics for the Whitecaps, not marrying himself to formations that he used in the past like 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2. That kind of flexibility is a smart choice given that Sporting CEO Axel Schuster did not want someone to come in and ‘rock the boat’. It will allow Sørensen to find a style that fits with the players that he has and find a middle ground between what they were previously used to, and what the Danish coach wants to bring to the table.

And on that table seems to be a main course of one principle focus: to control matches.

“[Control] is important because, when you have the ball, you control the game,” explained Sørensen when asked of his tactical philosophy. “But when you don’t have the ball, you can only affect the game, you cannot control what is going to happen.”

“If you have the ball, you can control it and also you can control the outcome. I think that playing too open creates randomness. That would be good if we are underdogs all the time, but if we want to be a team that should end up in the top, we have to play as a team that is also the top team. And so we have to be in more control of the game than our opponents.”

Thus, it looks like the Whitecaps will pivot away from being a primarily vertical, transitionally attacking team to one with more emphasis on maintaining control of possession and finding the gaps to create attacks. One quote that stuck out on this subject was when Sørensen said that he wants “players to be connected” to one another. How that will translate onto the pitch will remain to be seen, but it does give a sense that there will be a lot more emphasis on patience, rotations and positional play than what fans were previously used to. And given that he cited coaches like Marcelo Bielsa, Jurgen Klopp, and Pep Guardiola as inspirations, that sense may become reality sooner rather than later.

Can He Be the One To Take the Next Step?

This is the million-dollar question on everyone’s minds going into this announcement. After having to wait almost two months for this appointment, many people may see this as an underwhelming hire from Axel Schuster, given Sørensen’s name not being all that well-known. But not having that fame and expectation can be a benefit to both the Dane and the Whitecaps. It allows Sørensen to build his own image in the eyes of ‘Caps fans while also taking the time to learn this new league and team.

His history does show that he knows how to take teams to the top-echelon, even if he does not have many trophies to reflect it. His runs with Silkeborg, Fredericia, Brøndby, and even the Danish U-21s show that he can take teams to new and unprecedented heights. But it’s whether he can get over that final hurdle that will be telling in the coming months. Two years is not that long a time to build and enforce a championship winning team, but in the modern game, that is usually all managers will get.

Sørensen will need to try to hit the ground running with the ‘Caps in Marbella, because it doesn’t slow down much afterwards with the Concacaf Champions Cup starting in February. With four competitions to play in this season, fans will be expecting to see better than they have from this team in previous campaigns, even when it was – at times – the best the team has ever looked in MLS. That alone seems like a tall order, but Sørensen will have to take it in stride if he is to survive, let alone thrive, in his position. For, with Italian songs still ringing in their heads, Vancouver fans will need more than just Danishes to be won over by anyone coming into the hot seat at the Whitecaps. They’ll need goals, wins, and silverware.

Authored by: Felipe Vallejo

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