Marit Enstad has now completed two seasons in charge of Lyn 1896. After overseeing an encouraging first year back in the 2. divisjon, expectations at the Bislett were heightened for the 2020 campaign. However, a probable promotion challenge… didn’t exactly turn out as planned.
In this Season Review, we will look at Lyn’s results and see which players stood out in the team. We’ll then learn of Marit’s initial plans for the winter transfer window before finding time to track the progress of some former youth graduates.
If you haven’t yet caught up with the story, you can find all five chapters for Season 2 in the links provided: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
2. DIVISJON, AVDELING 1
We went into this campaign as promotion favourites, but a run of two wins in our first 11 matches suggested that it would be a season of struggle. We opened up with a 2-1 defeat at Nybergsund, who were expected to battle against relegation but ended up winning the league under Steffen Iversen. 12 days later came an even worse away loss, in which Asker destroyed us 4-0.
Though we took three draws from our first five, defensive frailties meant that we didn’t win until our sixth attempt. Martin Trøen was in excellent form as we ended Odd 2’s unbeaten start with a 4-0 victory of our own. We should have followed that up with another win, but Bærum got a stoppage-time equaliser in a six-goal thriller to keep us just above the drop zone.
June saw us find an apparent fix to our defensive issues, as we conceded only twice and collected eight points from four games. After starting July with a 4-2 win over bottom club Ørn Horten, we were in the top half, and just six points adrift of the play-off place.
Sadly, our 10-game unbeaten streak would come to a crashing end in the very next game. Nybergsund were ruthless, inflicting our first home defeat of the campaign to put us back down to 9th. The mid-season break would start with an emergency team meeting as we tried to pull ourselves together.
We’d started the first half of the season poorly, but we were even worse when it came to the second period. An awful August saw us lose our midfield general Marius Østvold to top-flight Kongsvinger, as well as three of our five games. The one ray of hope was a 4-3 revenge win over Asker, but even then, our defence was still leaving plenty to be desired.
I’d trialled a 4-4-2 diamond in place of my usual 4-2-3-1 formation, but it became apparent in September that it just wasn’t working. Home defeats to Bærum and Eidsvold Turn brought our campaign to a new low, and we were back in the bottom three for the first time since May.
I now had five games to save Lyn from relegation – and save my job, as the board had made clear. Things didn’t look too promising when we conceded an early goal to Fram Larvik, but we showed great spirit to win 5-3. It obviously helped that, after a recent drought, Trøen scored his first goals from open play since the Asker win.
Fram was the turning point. Playmaker Adil Zahid earned us four more points against Hønefoss and Rosenborg 2, before Trøen secured our survival by seeing off Nest-Sotra. The season ended on a sour note with defeat at the Bislett to Ørn, but at least we were five points clear of relegation in 9th place when the final whistles blew. And at least it’s still my name that’s on the door to the manager’s office.
CUPEN
We never make things easy for us in the Cupen, do we? It took a penalty shoot-out to get us past John Arne Riise’s Bryne side – who also play in the third tier – after a 1-1 draw in the opening round. New signing Alexander Vangen was our hero, saving the deciding penalty to put us through to a Round 2 tie with Mjøndalen.
A fortnight later, our Cupen campaign ended in spectacular fashion. Having been on course for an upset at 2-1 up, our opponents from the 1. divisjon scored a late penalty to take us to extra-time again. To make matters worse, we’d lost Østvold to injury just before full-time, and after we’d used all three substitutes.
Our 10 men held on for a little while in extra-time until our new defensive midfielder Erik Lundanes Jonvik scored an unfortunate own goal. That was the first of FIVE goals Mjøndalen netted in the space of 15 minutes to record an extraordinary 7-2 victory! Have you ever seen a collapse like that before?
AWARDS & STATISTICS
Our 2020 awards night produced a few surprises, but none as far as the big accolade was concerned. Trøen was named as our Fans’ Player of the Season after scoring 13 goals in his second season with Lyn. That’s one goal less than he scored in 2019, but he’s improved his overall game by providing a few assists and performing more consistently. I hope our number 10 stays here for years to come.
Left-back and free-kick specialist Oskar Hansen took 2nd place, having been one of the few Lyn players to come out of this season with his reputation still intact. Zahid’s reputation has only risen throughout the year, and his creativity from midfield was rewarded with 3rd place. The 22-year-old also won our Young Player of the Season award.
Erlend Hustad was apparently our Signing of the Season, which I thought was… surprising! The target forward played 10 games for us and scored twice – and that’s including a penalty in the Cupen shoot-out win over Bryne. Hustad was a gamble that didn’t pay off, and I’ve already agreed to let him join another club on a free transfer.
To be honest, none of our permanent winter signings made a huge impact at Lyn this term. Holding midfielder Jonvik and forward Marcus Mehnert were the only ones to make our Team of the Season. I would probably have given the Signing of the Season award to Jonvik, just because he was fairly solid and made few obvious mistakes.
Another player who moved to the Bislett in 2020 was box-to-box midfielder Martin Holmen, whose low long-ranger at home to Odd 2 in May was voted Goal of the Season. It was an impressive strike, sure, but I feel like we’ve scored better this year.
Trøen was a deserving Player of the Season, as he had the highest average rating in the squad. The striker’s 7.15 average rating in league matches placed him 10th in the division, with Hansen just behind him on 7.12.
Zahid and full-back Joakim Rishovd also had good seasons, as did Mads Sande before I dropped him in the wake of his sending-off in our 4-3 home defeat to Eidsvold Turn. The technically-gifted playmaker will return to our first-team next season, when I expect him to be hungrier, not to mention more disciplined.
Trøen led the way in terms of goals once again, with his 13 strikes putting him eight clear of his nearest colleagues Hansen and Zahid. Martin also finished an admirable 2nd to the runaway Top Goalscorer in Avdeling 1 – Asker’s Senegalese hotshot Papa Sow, who scored 19 in only 24 league games.
To be honest, I was expecting more contributions from our other attackers. That full-backs Hansen and Rishovd were our most proflic goal creators – and that nobody else got more than THREE assists – was very worrying. I was particularly disappointed with Eirik Haugstad, who’s one of the most talented wingers at this level but only claimed two goals and three assists this term.
Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh on them. We outscored everyone else except Asker (obviously), and our 49% shots-on-target ratio was the league’s best. Our conversion rate of 11% was pretty average, but most of the statistics suggest that finding the net is the very least of our worries.
It’s at the back where we need to really sharpen up. Only Ørn Horten, Asker and Nest-Sotra conceded more than our 44 goals this season, and nobody let in as many as we did from corners (six). The league doesn’t keep records for goals conceded from 20+ yards, but I’m sure we performed particularly badly on that statistic as well.
The most alarming stat is that we won only 55% of our headers – the worst in the league. Trøen isn’t the most adept striker when it comes to converting floated crosses, so that has probably distorted our figures. It also tells me that we’re not very good at making headed interceptions, so that’s something I’ll have to fix over the winter.
We had a decent disciplinary record, with nobody picking up more than three yellow cards for us. Jesper Sandberg will miss our opening league game of 2021 after collecting his fourth season booking on the final day, but two of them were with former club Nybergsund. Fellow summer signing Sande was the only Lyn player to receive a red card this season [though you can’t see that because FM19 statistics seem to bug out whenever you drop players to the reserves].
FINANCIAL UPDATE & TRANSFER PLANS
You probably weren’t expecting that, were you? Despite continuing to lose money at an alarming rate through much of the year, we will actually start 2021 with nearly €75,000 in the bank!
You’ll have to thank chairman Magnus Henriksen and the Lyn board for that. They put an extra €210,000 into the club over the summer and then agreed four new sponsorship deals worth just under €200,000 per year. To put that into perspective, we made around €95,000 through sponsorships in 2019.
Magnus will again allow me as much as €11,000 per week to spend on player wages next season. Our current weekly wage bill is just over €6,000, and I won’t allow us to go too far above that, especially as we’re already outspending all the other senior teams in the division. It’s also becoming harder to find players who will noticeably improve the team while not costing too much.
I have again asked certain players to take small pay cuts to help free up extra wages. Hansen and Zahid are amongst those who have agreed to extend their stays at the Bislett while decreasing their wages, for which I’m very grateful. As two of the few remaining players from the squad that won the 3. divisjon in 2018 before my appointment, their continued loyalty is much appreciated.
Speaking of loyalty, it’s about time I started showing a bit more to my players. Two seasons of upheaval have done no good for team cohesion, and that seems to be affecting our performances. We’ve actually got a pretty strong squad on the face of it, so maybe I should focus more on fixing our tactics than replacing half the team [aka the Shrewsbury approach].
As such, the only major changes in personnel I’ll be making this winter will be in defence. For starters, I’ll try to find a higher-quality goalkeeper than Knut-André Skjærstein, who has the agility of a cruise ship, and whose contract is once again up for renewal. I’ll only extend Knut-André’s stay for a third year if I cannot find an obvious upgrade in the transfer market.
Another centre-back is a must, especially with the impressive (and occasionaly infuriating) Nicolas Pignatel Jenssen going back to Stabæk. Captain Anders Lübeck and Andorra international Marc Vales already give us plenty of experience and leadership, which we’ll need after Faisal Dahir is released. We could do with a younger man who’s aerially and physically strong to complement Anders or Marc.
I might promote either Dan Tandberg or Eirik Melby from the Under-19s to be our fourth-choice central defender. Neither of them are particularly strong headers of a ball, but they are already capable enough tactically to deserve first-team opportunities. Tandberg has already made three league appearances before his 17th birthday and will probably be first in line for a promotion.
As solid as Hansen and Rishovd have been at full-back for us this season, we need genuine quality in those areas of the pitch. I’ll prioritise signing a left wing-back, because we already have several options on the right. I also want to give 18-year-old Markus Frydenlund more time to show what he’s capable of before a bigger club inevitably signs him up.
Don’t expect a major reshuffle in midfield. I’m very happy with the quality and depth we have when it comes to my three main midfielder categories – holders, runners and creators. The only significant change might come if we receive a large offer for one of our playmakers (most likely Henrik Lehne Olsen) and we have to sign a replacement.
We won’t renew Vegard Somdal‘s loan from Odd, so we will need another right-wing deputy for the enigmatic Haugstad. Natural left-wingers are rather hard to come by at this level, so I’ll instead look for an inside-forward upgrade on Simen Vedvik. As well as Vedvik played in 2019, he probably hasn’t got the technical qualities or the resilience to help us sustain a promotion charge.
Then we’ve got a conundrum at centre-forward. Trøen has been very prolific over the last two seasons, and Mehnert has the potential to be prolific, but do we need a third choice? Do we still need a Plan B – a Norwegian Peter Crouch, so to speak? Hustad wasn’t the answer to either of those questions, so might it come from elsewhere… or even from the Under-19s?
In short, I’d expect a quieter winter transfer window than the last two at Lyn. After a difficult year, I’m taking a more patient approach to try and get us out of this division at the third attempt – hopefully not via relegation!
YOUTH GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
As you have surely gathered, we have got a very productive youth system here at Lyn, and some of our top prospects have attracted interest from major clubs. In this section of the Season Review, I will look at those former Lyn youngsters who’ve moved on to bigger things to see what they’re up to now.
Tor Fritzøe Östman (Class of 2019): Right-winger Tor got five goals and six assists for Rosenborg 2 in the 2. divisjon this season. He made his senior debut for RBK as a substitute in a Europa League qualifier against Sevilla in August, and then started in the Cupen Semi Final defeat to Molde a month later. He is also a Norway Under-19s international.
Martin Knudtzon (2019): Martin moved north to Tromsø in August and has mainly played reserve football since then. The right-back made 10 appearances for Tromsø 2 this year, scoring once, but his performances haven’t been great.
Svein Melfjord (2019): Now 18, Svein is still awaiting his senior debut for Odd following his move from Lyn earlier this year. At reserve level, the striker has scored twice in 16 league matches.
Jon Andersen (2020): Jon has also taken some time to get used to life at a bigger club. The striker – who’s still only 16 – joined Sarpsborg in August and currently has two goals in 11 reserve games.
2020 NORWEGIAN SEASON ROUND-UP
Eliteserien
1. divisjon
2. divisjon, Avdeling 1
2. divjson, Avdeling 2
3. divisjon Champions
Avdeling 1: Vålerenga 2
Avdeling 2: Lillestrøm 2
Avdeling 3: KFUM Oslo
Avdeling 4: Træff
Avdeling 5: Stjørdals-Blink
Avdeling 6: Elverum
Cupen
Final: Molde 4-1 Åsane
National Under-19s Championship
1st: Rosenborg, 2nd: Vålerenga, 3rd: Strømsgodset
Champions League performances (2019/2020)
Molde – Champions Playoff (lost to Sparta Praha)
Europa League performances (2019/2020)
Odd – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to Ludogorets)
Rosenborg – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to Hibernian)
Strømsgodset – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 4 (lost to Astana)
Molde – 3rd in Group L
Champions League performances (2020/2021)
Molde – Champions Qualifying Round 2 (lost to Young Boys)
Europa League performances (2020/2021)
Odd – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to Aktobe)
Haugesund – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to RB Leipzig)
Rosenborg – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 4 (lost to Sevilla)
Molde – 4th in Group D
So there we have it. You don’t know just how relieved I am to have got this difficult second season out of the way with Lyn still in the 2. divisjon. We must now learn from this experience in order to make the third season more successful.
As I mentioned in Part 5, the first chapter of the 2021 campaign is ready to be posted next Monday. I hope you’ll continue to follow along, even after our recent difficulties. If you haven’t already, hit the ‘Follow Fuller FM’ button and/or follow me @Fuller_FM on Twitter to keep updated when new posts go live.
“Takk for lesing!”
Fuller FM 
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