Jorgen Strand Larsen is ‘proud’ of his first 12 months in English football, having matched his best ever league goalscoring season following his move to Wolves last summer.
The Norwegian found the net 14 times in the last Premier League campaign – a figure he has only ever reached once before in his career, which came during the 2021/22 Dutch Eredivisie when he was leading the line for Groningen.
During a year in which he became the first ever Wolves player to score in four consecutive Premier League victories, as well as scoring the most goals in the competition of any player in his first season at Wolves – beating Raul Jimenez’s 13 from 2018/19 – Strand Larsen is determined to do even better when he returns to Compton after the summer break.
On his first season in the Premier League
“We’ve managed to do what we wanted to do – halfway through it was about staying up, so we managed to do that. I’m proud of the team and the way we came back after really tough start and tough six months.
“Obviously, it was not easy for me to come into a new team where we couldn’t really perform the way we wanted to, because you always want to come in and be that instant impact and I felt like it took me some time – even though I had some good games in the beginning, but we didn’t get the points we wanted to, so I’m glad that it happened at the end.
“But we also need to learn from that, and hopefully next season we can have fewer games where we’re not performing at our best level.”
On overcoming 12 months of changes
“We’ve all been through quite tough times – as a football club, as a team and as a player, you learn a lot from it. It’s not like one thing that has changed, obviously, changing of the manager is a huge part to it, and Gary [O’Neil] and all the staff did what they could, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. That’s just how football is.
“They’d been doing really well earlier in Wolverhampton, so it’s not about them not being good trainers or good people, because they were amazing people and really good on the grass, but sometimes what a football club needs is a fresh start and fresh faces, and I think that’s what we needed because we needed all of our squad, all of the players, to actually feel that we can fight for a spot in the starting 11, and I think Vitor has brought that back.
“He’s been changing the team enough during his six months here that people feel that they always have a chance to start, and that’s been really important because the training levels has gone up, and everything around it has gone up, but there is still a lot to learn from this year.”
On quickly adapting to English football
“What I’ve learned most from coming here is that I’ve taken the steps quite earlier than I’ve done before. Previously when I moved to a new country, I’ve needed more time, especially in Spain, where I needed almost a year to get into it and score goals.
“But at the end of the day, that’s what they count strikers on – they need you to score the goals and be on the end of it, so it’s been a good season for me in that respect. Obviously, there will be some times when you go up and down and your form is going to fall and you get injured or whatever – and I’ve been feeling that a little bit this season as well – but for me, coming back again after my injuries and a little dip of form, I think that’s what I learned the most from this season, and I’m proud of what I’ve done.
“I needed one more goal to reach 15, which would have been amazing in my first season in the Premier League, as I have never scored 15 goals in another team in any other league, so that was a personal goal for me as well, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get that in the last game.”
On his role in Pereira’s system
“I feel like my role is kind of the same. Obviously, we’re playing with a little bit of a different style now, where I can drop down a bit more and receive the ball more than I probably could before, which fits me well, because that’s one of my strengths.
“But at the end of the day, I want to be at the end of the cross of the ball, I want to be in the box, so that’s the most important thing for me and I think we’ve worked really hard to do that.
“Since December when Vitor and his staff have come in, I’ve scored eight goals, and seven goals in seven or eight games, so it’s been a good end of the season. But I think what we worked on this season has been really good, and it’s been progressing in a really good way for next season.”
On getting some physical and mental rest
“Every summer, everyone’s really tired, everyone’s mentally tired, physically tired, and all of us have some kind of issues or problems body-wise that we need to take care of. I’ve been playing with some issues myself and need to take care of that, so the plan is to get some rest and then try and get my body up and going again.
“But the most important thing is to get some rest, mentally rest, and then we can all come back in a good shape and have a nice pre-season ready for next year.
“This summer I’m just going to try and clear my head of football for a little bit and think about something else, spend time with my family and friends and actually live a normal life, and then after that, come back with the working boots on again.”
On aiming to be more consistent
“We will get a pre-season together with Vitor, the coaches, the staff and the players, and that obviously helps, because that it when we have more time to work on stuff we couldn’t have worked on during the season, as it gives the coaches more time as well.
“What we can work on is just trying to be as more stable as a team as we can. We’ve been way too much up and down this season, and it also reflects on the last few games of the season. If we can be on a decent level every game, we are a very tough team to beat, and that’s what we want to aim for. “We showed last season that we can beat anyone, and we obviously can again next year, so hopefully we can build on that.”
