Grøndahl’s game: “I need to know what's the secret behind it and how they do it”

“I've never seen this way of playing before, so it's a mix of German and a new way of playing. Maybe it's Danish, Scandinavian or just the Gidsel way,” says Norwegian centre back Tobias Grøndahl on how he would describe Füchse Berlin’s style, having arrived at the German club ahead of the current season. 

“I feel like we somehow have managed to combine this way of playing attack with a lot of one-on-one but instead of just relying on the one-on-one situation, we also continue, or have the continuation of the attack, where our wingers get a lot of chances, especially the left wing.

“I would think that the defensive teams are like: ‘it's so annoying, because we feel like we have them, but the ball is always able to be played to the next one, and the next, and the next,’ and then they’re just outplayed. When I talked to a lot of my teammates from the national team, they also say this — ‘it's so annoying because you know what's coming, but after you know what's coming then you just have to somehow manage to defend the situation because you never know if there is a one-on-one or if the pass is just played really early, and then we have a one-on-one on the other side suddenly,’” Grøndahl continues. 

“This is one of the, I would say, strengths in our attack, because it's hard to know exactly what's going to happen and that's also for me — it's hard to know sometimes what's going to happen with Mathias on the side. It's a bit the same with me and for the defensive players.” 

It was the way Berlin play in attack that pulled Grøndahl to the club, to which he came from one season at GOG. The news that Grøndahl would join the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 finalists Füchse was interesting, as the 24-year-old had been establishing himself as one of the most exciting attacking players in the game through recent years, grabbing attention in the premier club competition with Elverum and in the EHF European League with GOG, and also becoming a key player for Norway. 

The unstoppable Füchse backs Mathias Gidsel and Lasse Andersson were a headlining topic of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25, after they finished as the first and third top scorers of the season, respectively. Gidsel is also the undisputed player of the moment, with back-to-back IHF World Player of the Year awards, EHF Excellence Awards 2024/25 MVP and MVP of the last two Olympic Games and World Championships, to name a few.

Gidsel: “I just do something and you just have to pay attention”

Grøndahl was joining a ferocious attacking line-up, bolstering the centre back position. How would the entry of Grøndahl, exceptional in one-on-one and a fast, creative playmaker, impact Füchse’s offence? 

“One of the main reasons why I joined Füchse is also because this way of playing handball was really tempting for me. It was like, wow, this is something completely different. It's something I've never tried, and I've been a big part of the attacking systems and the way we play attack also in Elverum and GOG last season. 

“When I watched Füchse Berlin — the way they make it look so simple with combining the one-on-one in the attack, but also the flow — I was like, I don't quite understand it. I look at myself and I see myself as a really clever handball guy, so this was something that really was, ‘I need to experience this. I need to know what's the secret behind it and how they do it,’” says Grøndahl. 

“After six months, I would say that adapting to this way of playing the attack is really fun. It's so interesting because it's more — I don't know how you say it in English — but it's more like the feeling you have in attack, instead of putting up a specific system and telling everyone exactly where to be at this moment. 

“One of the first times I talked to Mathias Gidsel about something in attack — like, ‘OK, what do you do in this situation? So I know. It's good for me to know.’ And he said, ‘ah it's a bit hard to tell. I just do something and you just have to pay attention and look at it and then we play from there.’ And I was like, OK. So, it's based a lot on handball intuition.” 

“He has his own way of playing handball for sure”

The way Grøndahl talks about Berlin’s attack — which is his key focus area, given he is hardly ever on the court for defence and if so, on the wing position — it becomes clear that Gidsel contributes to the style enormously. 

“He has his own way of playing handball for sure,” says Grøndahl. “I really quickly recognised that his way of thinking about handball is really different from a lot of the other players. I've never been, or I've never talked to a player who thinks in this specific way, like Mathias does. And I really think it's interesting because I have also been a player who thinks really much about the system, about how we play attack, and to get this input from Mathias really makes my brain, or my handball brain, develop really much. 

“When I think in specific situations, I think, OK, of course we have to do like this or this, but then Mathias comes with this third option, which never even crossed my mind. So it's really, really interesting to be a part of it and kind of build and develop this way of playing throughout the season.” 

Intuition and recognising situations for teammates over defensive weakness

Because of the unique situation in the offence at Berlin, Grøndahl’s study away from the court focuses a lot on his own team — a lot of watching to learn how to better predict what individual players will do or want from Grøndahl. 

“It's even more important for me, I would say, to recognise situations, where he, for example, Mathias, usually does this or usually does that, which makes it easier for me when I go into the game instead of trying to look, ‘what's Mathias doing?’ It's more that I recognise the situation and I recognise his runs, so this makes it easier for me.

“When I was in Elverum and GOG, it was so tactically detailed that when I watched video, I looked at really small details to find maybe one or two free goals, so we didn't have to, you know, kill ourselves to get all the goals in the game. But when you play so intuitively, it's more about recognising the situation for my teammates instead of the weaknesses in the defence.  

From “big middle defender” to attacking specialist

Grøndahl became completely focused on attack upon graduating to open-age handball, when he realised that, at 183cm, he was considered on the smaller side. 

“It was maybe my first year as a senior, because that’s when I realised I was really much smaller than the other guys I faced, because I was a young guy who came up early in the top division,” reflects Grøndahl. At his home club, Vestre Bærum, Grøndahl laughs when sharing that he was “a big middle defender.”

“I also was playing a little bit 5-1, so I had a lot more responsibility when I was younger, but then I realised I was a bit smaller than the other guys, and after a bit of time, then we realised that OK, attack — that's my main focus.”

Grøndahl’s concentration on attack naturally did not come about purely due to his size — offence was also his strength. 

“In Norway, we have this national series when you become 16 years old, I think, and that's the time when we were supposed to face the really good teams all around Norway, not just our area. Then we were like, OK, now this is going to be really tough. We are facing the best of the best in Norway. This is going to be tough. But we did really well. We had a lot of good attacking play and also defensive play and that's when I realised, ‘wow, these crazy thoughts that I have in my head are working against the best in Norway.’ And that's when I kind of started to just build on that even more.” 

Speaking of being considered a smaller player, who has weapons like speed and footwork — which means that Grøndahl fits the ideal when it comes to the way handball has been developing — the centre back finds that the timing is perfect. 
 
“For me it was really perfect, to come into this handball period, because I'm not the biggest and I'm not, like we talked about before, the defensive player of the season, so that makes it even more interesting to see that handball is developing in a way where it's so much more tempo. 

“There are a lot of really, really good attacking players, which makes it hard for the defence, because the players are just really good. It feels like every team is now looking for a way to go one-on-one in the best possible conditions for the attacking player. And there are so many different ways of doing this. You have seen a lot of teams play with four back-court players, and you have also seen a lot of teams using the pivot just to screen away the helping defender, so suddenly you have a middle defender playing one-on-one against, for example, Mathias Gidsel or me, and have no way.”

“One tiny mistake from the defender and then I have the advantage”

It is Grøndahl’s job to make scoring a lot of goals happen. What are his favourite moves to do so? 

“One of the most efficient ways for me to play attack is when we play with the line player as wide as possible and when I have the possibility to be able to run a lot with some high defenders, because then I feel like it's just one tiny mistake from the defender and then I have the advantage and be able to play, for example, the one man more on one of the sides. So, I would say that's one of my most efficient ways of playing the attack, but I also feel like in Elverum I developed this bounce pass to the left and to the right, which was really effective and made it hard for the defensive players to go in.”

Looking to the past, before he was a star on the court himself, Grøndahl did not have one particular handball idol — though he does name his mother’s father as an important role model in life in general. He did enjoy different elements of different players’ games, however.  

“For example, Uwe Gensheimer’s wrist and the way he could finish the attack or shoot in every possible angle, situation or however. Also, I really looked at, like, [Daniel] Narcisse’s skill move, with his drop step. And for sure [Ivano] Balic,” concludes Grøndahl. “I was not able to watch too much of Balic, but he's for sure the player I've watched the most on YouTube and when I could in the Champions League and so on.”

Main & Feature photo © Sylvia Goeres, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Tomasz Fafara