You know your Football Manager blog save has taken on a whole new meaning when your virtual players start tweeting you in real-life. That’s what happened to me on Monday evening, while I was watching the FIFA Women’s World Cup match between France and Nigeria (incidentally, Norway were playing South Korea at the same time).
Do you remember from a few chapters ago that I mentioned Oskar Hansen ‘liking’ one of my tweets. Well, Oskar actually tweeted me on Monday to say how much he loved reading this story! Then, about half an hour later, Marius Østvold replied to a tweet promoting the previous chapter, which was… a bit surreal, in a good way!
So thank you very much, Oskar and Marius, for getting in touch and showing your support for this story. Now I’ll wait patiently for Tor Fritzøe Östman to tell me how much he hates being at Rosenborg and then ask me to bring him back to Lyn 1896. Tor is a real player, right?
Anyway… the story. We left off with Marit Enstad having signed three players to try and lead Lyn up the table. Can they make a late push for promotion… or is the season about to take a dark turn?
LYN 1896 vs EGERSUNDS (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 17)
Hei, det er Marit! I went into the final 10 games of the season in an optimistic mood, even after the €40,000 sale of our most talented player Marius Østvold on transfer deadline day [awkward!]. We were eight points clear of relegation and ready to make a late push for promotion.
And then Egersunds came to the Bislett. A miserable run of four losses in six games had left the visitors staring at the prospect of consecutive relegations, but we found that these Tigers still had plenty of bite. The same couldn’t be said of our new box-to-box midfielder Jesper Sandberg, who was so poor that I substituted him at half-time.
You’ll probably have noted over recent weeks that Knut-André Skjærstein seemed utterly incapable of keeping out shots from distance. Our first-choice keeper had another moment to forget in the 28th minute, when he lacked the agility to stop attacking midfielder Thomas Horneland curling in a 30-yard strike. 1-0 to Egersunds.
Skjærstein looked even less competent in the 30th minute. After pushing winger Lasse Sigurdsen’s punt against his right-hand post, Knut-André tried to claw the rebound off his line. Rasmus Løvseth got there first and easily tapped it in, but the offside flag saved us.
Four minutes after that major scare, we drew level through another of Oskar Hansen‘s deadly free-kick. Oskar didn’t go directly for goal from a tight angle, but he instead swinging the ball towards the far post. Standing there ready to pounce was teenage centre-back Nicolas Pignatel Jenssen, who headed in his first goal for Lyn.
Unfortunately, we would fall foul to another killer free-kick at the same end of the pitch eight minutes into the second half. We made a mess of trying to clear Henning Romslo’s delivery, which allowed defender Geirald Meyer to drive Egersunds back ahead. Though an excellent strike from Adil Zahid in the 76th minute cancelled it out, Meyer would soon be back for more.
The game’s decisive moment came in the final minute of normal time, when Jenssen was accused of pushing Romslo about 25 yards from our goal. Meyer stepped forward to take the free-kick, which he curled past our wall with just enough bend to catch Skjærstein out. A surprise brace from the 23-year-old had consigned us to a 3-2 defeat – not the result we were expecting after beating leaders Asker a week earlier.
Egersund’s victory took them out of the relegation zone, ahead of Eidsvold Turn by just one goal. As far as we were concerned, the gap between us and 12th was down from a comfortable eight points to a more worrying five.
No prizes for guessing what the media wanted to ask me before our next game at Lørenskog…
“HIM?” EXCUSE ME?!
By the way, I wasn’t feeling any pressure managing a team that had lost three of its last four games and crumbled more easily than Pultost cheese. Skjærstein was probably a little rattled after conceding 11 goals in those four matches, though, so his deputy Alexander Vangen would take over the gloves for the time being.
LØRENSKOG vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 18)
In a way, Lørenskog were enjoying a similar season to what we had last year. Having come up from the 3. divisjon, Julian Madsen’s men were right in the mix for back-to-back promotions.
We took the game to our opponents early on, drawing first blood after 19 minutes. Having recently fallen out of favour, the enigmatic Simen Vedvik marked his comeback with an assist for Hansen, who curled in an excellent shot from just outside the area.
However, the momentum quickly shifted to Lørenskog, who were level by the 33rd minute. Alex Krawiec cut our defence open with a devastating low cross to Riki Alba, whose point-blank finish had us in despair. Vedvik felt agony of a different kind just two minutes later, when he pulled up clutching his thigh, bringing an early end to his game.
The second half proved to be a battle, and it was Lørenskog who pulled themselves in front midway through. Alba and Krawiec swapped roles for their second goal, with the Dominican striker allowing the on-loan Sandefjord winger to dribble through our defence before beating Vangen from long range. [Yeah… now I’m starting to suspect something might be up with FM19’s match engine.]
We thought we’d equalised in the 75th minute, when another free-kick by the Norwegian Roberto Carlos was headed in at the far post by Martin Trøen. The offside flag went up against our star striker, who remained goalless, though we still had one ace left up our sleeve.
Enter our other deadline-day signing – playmaker Mads Sande, who was just coming back from a knee ligament injury sustained at his previous club Stabæk. A few of our fans were annoyed to see a former rival now wearing red-and-white, but Sande wasted little time silencing the critics. A fantastic strike from outside the box [obviously] earned Mads a debut goal, and us a 2-2 draw, though I was rather hoping for more.
Shortly after the final whistle, I asked our head physio Emma Holmqvist if she had any news about Vedvik’s thigh injury. The news… wasn’t good at all.
That’s the end of Simen’s second year at Lyn, then. For the record, he finished with two goals and two assists in 14 matches. Hardly the form that saw him named our 2019 Player of the Season, is it?
Our whole season was now in danger of becoming a write-off, with the gap between us and the play-off place having widened to eight points. With any lingering hopes of promotion surely gone, survival was the new aim – both in terms of keeping us in the 2. divisjon, and in terms of keeping my job.
ODD 2 vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 19)
When we last played Odd 2 back in May, we handsomely beat them 4-0 at the Bislett and wiped the smile clean off Svein Melfjord’s face. The rematch in Skien went rather differently.
For starters, Odd took the lead after just four minutes. Håkon Suggelia sent a magnificent cross-field ball to wideman Joakim Holmen Jahnsen, who curled in a 25-yard pot-shot that Vangen sadly could not get his gloves to.
After that, nearly all the scoring opportunites came our way, but we just couldn’t convert them. Trøen hit the post in the sixth minute, though his strike partner Marcus Mehnert and winger Eirik Haugstad came rather closer to finding the net. They would each have two shots saved by Lorenzo Crisanto, who looked solid in the Oddrane goal.
By the end of a frustrating 90 minutes, nearly all the statistics (shots on target, possession, passes completed, crosses completed) suggested we should’ve won easily. But football isn’t about statistics (except the one that matters most), and our wastefulness meant we deserved to lose.
Results elsewhere left us just two points above the drop zone. Our next match against Hønefoss was postponed until October due to international call-ups (Jenssen was with Norway’s Under-19s, and Marc Vales was with Andorra, leaving us short of defenders). That meant it would be another fortnight before we returned to action, at home to Bærum.
LYN 1896 vs BÆRUM (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 20)
I wasn’t the only manager fearing for my job at the Bislett. Bærum’s Luke Torjussen was also fighting desperately to keep his team away from relegation. Defeat here would push either team closer to the drop and put their coach in real danger.
At half-time, it was me who was in danger. Despite losing their star winger Mathias Aasand to a knee injury in the 25th minute of a dire first half, Bærum put their noses in front just seven minutes later. Our holding midfielder Erik Lundanes Jonvik clattered into substitute Espen Meland just outside the area, giving the visitors a free-kick. Defender Andreas Elvestad took a mean set-piece, and he produced another stunner here to leave us 1-0 behind.
Shortly after that opening goal, Erlend Hustad almost cancelled it out, but his header from vice-captain Joakim Rishovd‘s cross just skimmed the crossbar. Henrik Lehne Olsen also had a great chance early in the second half, when his powerful strike was palmed away by Sondre Midtgarden in the Bærum goal.
Little did we know then that those would be our best opportunities. No matter what we tried, we just couldn’t break through a stubborn defence. The boos that echoed across the Bislett at full-time told you all you needed to know about how poor we had been.
You may be surprised to read that I wasn’t sacked after this latest defeat, which kept us narrowly above the drop zone. However, it was crucial that we didn’t slip up in the next match, otherwise it surely would be all over.
LYN 1896 vs EIDSVOLD TURN (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 21)
3:00pm, Sunday 20 September 2020. 11th-placed Lyn were at home to 12th-placed Eidsvold Turn in what was a massive match in the battle to avoid relegation. If we won, we would be four points clear of the drop with a game in hand. If Eidsvold won, however, they would push us into the bottom three for the first time since May.
I took a big gamble in defence for this match, giving 16-year-old centre-back Dan Tandberg his full debut alongside captain Anders Lübeck. At first, it looked like they would have little to worry about, especially after Jonvik fired us into the lead in the seventh minute. Erik scored a spectacular first Lyn goal from 25 yards after Eidsvold defender Fredrik Holme tried to head away a cross from Hansen.
The problems began 10 minutes later, when our right-back Markus Frydenlund broke his wrist in a tackle from fellow teenager Andreas Nymoen. Rishovd came off the bench to replace him, but our rhythm had been disrupted. By the 37th minute, Holme had equalised for the visitors, getting above Tandberg to convert Jon Erik Økland’s corner.
By then, our midfielders Sande and Sandberg were both already in the book. I was fearful that the aggressive Sandberg would lose his cool just before half-time, but it was his near-namesake who overstepped the mark in the 40th minute. A stupid push on Eidsvold left-back Johan Kolbjørnsrud earned Sande his second yellow, and forced us to play the entire second half with only 10 men.
Eidsvold made the most of their extra man after the interval. Firstly, in the 48th minute, Nymoen squared right-winger Joakim Madsen’s cross to his fellow on-loan Valerenga youngster Lukas Håll, who finished with ease. Eight minutes later, a terrible clearance from Rishovd allowed Nymoen to steal the ball and find the net himself. Suddenly, we were 3-1 behind at home in a relegation six-pointer!
Then we started to put up more of a fight. When Holmen won a ball off ex-Lyn midfielder Dulee Johnson in the 64th minute, Hansen [who else?] stepped forward to curl in a superb strike and cut the deficit to 3-2.
Then, on 75 minutes, Kolbjørnsrud pushed Trøen in the penalty area to stop the Lyn striker from getting his head to a long ball from Rishovd. The referee pointed to the spot, and Martin never looked like missing the subsequent penalty. His 10th goal of the season made it 3-3!
Alas, there would be one final twist in this thrilling contest three minutes later. Kolbjørnsrud went from zero to hero, lifting a cross over our defence to find an unarmed Madsen, who prodded the ball underneath Vangen’s despairing dive. Eidsvold Turn were 4-3 up, and this time, there would be no response from Lyn. A miserable season had hit a new low.
So that’s five games without a win, including three consecutive defeats. An alarming decline had ended with us slipping to 12th. Having been eight points clear of the drop zone just a few weeks earlier, we were now in serious danger of being relegated.
And with that, the board decided that it was time to hold an emergency meeting. I sat down with chairman Magnus Henriksen and director Christoffer Grønner to discuss our recent decline, and the way forward from this mess.
I could sense that Magnus and Christoffer were prepared to sack me and bring in someone with more experience than me. However, I convinced them to give me more time after saying, “Things will be better in a month’s time. You’ve got to trust me.”
I now have exactly one month to turn our form around and rebuild the board’s trust in me. There are still five weeks left in the season, so I still might not get to see it through to the end if our slump continues. However, I’ve got a plan to pull us out of danger and earn a third season in charge at the Bislett.
For starters, I’m returning to the tactical systems that we used through most of last season. I had binned the counter-attacking 4-3-3 for a while, but we’ll be using that a lot more over the coming weeks, especially against stronger, more attack-minded opponents. I’ve found during my short reign that trying to control the game is not always possible, and that I should instead try to be more pragmatic against those teams and hit them on the break if possible.
Our more positive 4-2-3-1 will also make a comeback in its basic form. You’ll probably remember from earlier this year that I had tried dropping one of the central midfielders back to provide direct defensive midfield cover. That has probably caused more problems than it has fixed, so I’ll instead test out a few more subtle tweaks instead.
I’ve also taken another risk by making an example of Sande, whose red card arguably cost us any realistic hopes of taking away anything against Eidsvold Turn. He will not play another first-team match again this season, and he will instead see out the year in our reserve team.
You’re probably thinking, “Marit, you are being too rash!” At the end of the day, Mads let the whole team down massively, and he needs to learn that I won’t stand for it.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that his Lyn career is already over. The door remains open for him to return in the 2021 season, whether or not I’m still in charge. I obviously hope I will be… but if this is the beginning of the end, I’m determined to go down with a fight.
Wow. That was an unexpected change of fortunes.
As Football Manager players, we all go through our peaks and troughs, and this has been one of the lowest troughs I’ve experienced in years. You don’t know just how close I came to simply resigning during that board meeting, but the support this story has received convinced me to carry on.
The season finale will go live early next week (probably Monday). If we can survive the final five games, the story goes on as normal. If not, at least I’ll have left Lyn knowing I couldn’t have done more to keep them up.
“Takk for lesing.”
Fuller FM 
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