Tord Erland Grip (born 13 January 1938) is a Swedish former football coach and player. He has worked with several national teams, including England, Sweden, Indonesia, Mexico, the Ivory Coast and Kosovo.
Playing career
Grip began his football career as a teenager playing for Ytterhogdals, where he, like most footballers of his generation also played bandy, later playing part-time in the top flight for Degerfors and AIK while studying for his degree in Physical Education.[3] He played for a reserve side of Aston Villa during a three-month work placement in Birmingham in 1961, although he only appeared in local Intermediate League matches.[4]
Coaching career
Grip became a player/manager at Karlskoga in 1969, and has since managed several other clubs in Sweden, Italy and Switzerland.
He has also managed the Norway national team, the Swedish women's senior team and men's under-16 team, and has had two spells as assistant manager of the Sweden men's team. In 1998, after his second period as assistant manager of the national team, Grip took up a coaching position at the Italian club Lazio as the assistant of fellow Swedish manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.
In January 2001, when Eriksson was appointed England manager, he brought Grip with him from Lazio as assistant manager. Grip remained in the post until the end of the UEFA Euro 2004 and with England until the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In November 2006, he was appointed special adviser to Swedish club Djurgårdens.
On 6 July 2007, Grip became part of the backroom staff of Manchester City when Sven-Göran Eriksson took over as manager. This reunited Grip with Eriksson after their reign together in the England setup. In June 2008, Grip was again reunited with Eriksson, after accepting an offer to become assistant manager of Mexico.
In April 2009, after Eriksson was fired by the Mexican Football Federation due to a bad string of results, Eriksson and Grip took up the positions of Director of Football and General Advisor to the Director of Football respectively at Notts County. Grip is currently a freelance senior squad scout for the Premier League side Southampton.[citation needed]
In February 2014, he was appointed as assistant manager of Kosovo.[5]
Style of management
Grip's tactics were inspired by those of English managers Bob Houghton and Roy Hodgson, who pioneered the 4–4–2 formation in Swedish football, and a zonal marking system, as well as heavy pressing. His style in turn influenced that of Sven-Göran Eriksson.[6][7][8]
Career statistics
International
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 1963 | 1 | 1 |
| 1964 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1965 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1966 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1967 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 3 | 1 | |
- Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Grip goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 October 1963 | Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden |  Hungary
|
1–0 | 2–2 | 1964 Summer Olympics qualifying | [10] |
Honours
Manager
Malmö
Sweden (assistant manager)
- FIFA World Cup third place: 1994
Lazio (assistant manager)
References
- ^ "Sweden national football team stats". passagen.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 9 June 2001.
- ^ "Samtliga förbundskaptener damlandslaget genom tiderna" (in Swedish). Swedish Football Association. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- ^ "500 AIK:are - Tord Grip". www.aik.se. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ Rej, Arindam (9 February 2005). "Grip was stalwart of Villa's third team". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
- ^ "Tord Grip blir assisterande förbundskapten i Kosovo" (in Swedish). fotbolltransfers.com. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- ^ "C'era in Europa: il Goteborg che portò la Svezia in cima all'Europa" (in Italian). mondosportivo.it. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- ^ Wilson, Jonathan (5 June 2012). "The Question: Does 4–4–2 work for England?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 May 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
- ^ Wilson, Jonathan (2009). Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics. Orion Books. pp. 299–301. ISBN 978-1-4091-0204-5.
- ^ "Tord Grip - Spelarstatistik - Svensk fotboll". www.svenskfotboll.se. (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Sverige - Ungern - Matchfakta - Svensk fotboll". www.svenskfotboll.se (in Swedish). 27 October 1963. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
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