French here with a Norwegian gf so I’ve watched a bunch of Norway’s games. And everytime I watch them play I see a couple of key things going wrong.

1 - the squad seems very inconsistent. Yeah you have a few elite players but others really are subpar. I find that very visible in defense where they often seem to lack composure, but also in the buildup where you’ll have players like Odegaard who will generally improve every ball they get (one touch pass if possible to build momentum, pass back if heavy pressure, move forward if there is space…) but that can be completely undone by players who seem to not have that high a football IQ at all (dont know what to do with the ball? pass back to a literally worse position even if you’re under 0 pressure. or the opposite where there is heavy pressure but a player will suddenly believe they’re Ronaldinho and lose a ball in a dangerous position)

2 - lack of strategy / coaching. Maybe its unfair to compare Norway to France so instead I’ll compare them to my home club, Lens. Now Lens doesn’t have elite players, but when you watch them play there is usually a clear idea. We recently beat Arsenal in the UCL, punching way above our weight, and while that was probably a bit of luck it’s also because we had a strategy that gave us that chance (accepting they’ll put us under heavy pressure close to our own goal, try to get out of it through passes or pace and counter attack fast and in numbers when it happens). And it worked a couple times. Norway often seems to not have a plan and not know what to do in game.

3- lack of a killer instinct. While those first 2 could be fixed with a better coach, this one I think is more due to lack of experience. And what I mean by that is they drop points stupidly. In that caase they were in a group with 2 spots to take, and Spain and Scotland in it. So you know, not the easiest. And then they would draw against Georgia (!!!) in a game where they were far better but didn’t seem unhappy with 1 point (there was no urgency to get the win in the late game). Thn they would be beating Scotland convincingly but let their guards down in the last few minutes and give them the win. Etc etc…

In my opinion, they need a better coach urgently (been saying that since the very first time I watched them play) - better coaching would address most of these issues.

Also wanna point out that my gf literally has 0 hope about the NT accomplishing anything. Which makes me wonder if there isn’t also these types of feelings in the team where they’ve always underperformed and it makes it a vicious cycle (you know, the opposite of UCL Real Madrid where they have such confidence they’ll manage to come back from the craziest scenarios)