Even by my usual FM19 standards, 2023 has been quite a hectic year! This was Lyn 1896’s second season in the 1. divisjon, having just fallen short in the play-offs the first time around. Could Marit Enstad’s side better their 3rd-place finish and secure a spot in the Eliteserien, or would their promotion push stall?
This Season Review has the usual fare. Firstly, we’ll run through all the league and Cupen results, look at our best players, and analyse some key statistics. Marit will then explain her transfer plans for next season before we finish off with a quick round-up with what else went on in Norwegian football.
If you’d like to relive this campaign in greater detail, you can revisit all six chapters in the links attached: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. I’ve also written an extra article – The Football World in 2023, where you can read about who won the various major competitions during the first five years of this save.
1. DIVISJON
We endured a rotten start to the year, conceding eight goals on our way to three straight defeats that left us bottom of the table. The one positive we took from an awful April was a narrow 1-0 home win over Arendal, thanks to inside-forward Kot Chol Tafesse‘s strike midway through the first half.
Form started to pick up in May, as we took an admirable home draw with Sarpsborg before racking up four away victories on the spin. It was a fantastic month for 20-year-old striker Svein Melfjord, who had struggled since rejoining his boyhood club on loan from Odd. Super Svein finally found his feet in claiming SIX goals against Jerv, Levanger, Tromsdalen and Mjøndalen.
Those wins took us into the top six, but some disappointing home results in June put our play-off hopes back in doubt. A couple of scrappy draws were followed by a surprise 2-0 defeat to Elverum, who were making a real push for successive promotions. We thus ended the month in 7th place – seven points off the top two.
Another 2-0 loss (to Alta) followed early in July before winger Eirik Haugstad‘s double against Åsane got us back on track. Other highlights in that month included a comfortable win at Bryne, and a stunning long-range strike from Sander Eng Strand to earn us a late draw with Tromsø.
The Tromsø game also started a run of five consecutive games in which Melfjord found the net. The last three of those were all victories, and we were most impressive in defeating title challengers Sarpsborg away from home.
Sadly, Svein’s streak ended in a 2-2 draw with Jerv, but he roared back to life in September with four more goals. A brilliant second-half performance saw off play-off rivals Levanger before we narrowly beat Tromsdalen and got our revenge on Elverum. On the minus side, Sogndal overwhelmed us at their place, but we were now really in the mix for automatic promotion.
Then we had another wobbly run-in, drawing three out of four games. The odd one out was at Skeid, where we were 2-0 down at half-time before Tafesse struck three times in four minutes to turn it all around.
Subsequent failures to beat either Åsane or Alta, though, meant that automatic promotion was out of our hands on the final day. There was even a doubt over whether we would make the play-offs until we took care of Bryne, with the returning Martin Trøen getting on the scoresheet. Unfortunately, Sarpsborg won their final game at Tromsdalen, which meant we finished 3rd – below them and Sogndal.
Another Playoff Semi Final now beckoned for Lyn. In stark contrast to last year’s narrow loss to Tromsø, we had no problems in destroying Fredrikstad – a surprising result, seeing as they’d beaten us twice in the regular season. A Melfjord hat-trick then saw off Levanger in a thrilling Playoff Final, setting up a promotion/relegation with Sandefjord – the 14th-placed team in the Eliteserien.
Home advantage didn’t help us in a 1-0 first-leg defeat, making Sandefjord firm favourites to secure their top-flight status. However, we were very strong on our travels, so I remained confident. Melfjord and Eng Strand put us 2-0 up in the second leg, and though the hosts pulled one goal back, midfielder Jesper Sandberg quickly retaliated to make himself a Bastionen hero. After winning 3-1 on the night (and 3-2 on aggregate), we were on our way to the Eliteserien!
CUPEN
We toiled in Round 1 of the Cupen against 2. divisjon side Notodden, having to play 30 extra minutes before finally getting the better of them. That earned us a Round 2 tie at home to Haugesund, who finished 3rd in the Eliteserien last year. As expected, their greater class shone through, with Melfjord’s consolation coming too late for us to recover from falling 2-0 behind.
AWARDS & STATISTICS
For the third year in a row, a left-back was voted as our Player of the Season. Andreas Uran carried on the excellent work of his predecessors Oskar Hansen (now playing for KFUM Oslo) and Joackim Olsen Solberg to inspire us to promotion. His solidity at the back and productivity further forward saw him named man of the match in six games, including the decisive second leg of the Sandefjord tie.
Uran cost us €6,000 from Jerv in the winter transfer window and was – unsurprisingly – named our Signing of the Season. The 23-year-old even completed a hat-trick of club awards with the Young Player of the Season accolade. If he can carry his 1. divisjon form into the Eliteserien, Andreas could well become a Lyn stalwart.
Another player who’s set to become part of the Bislett furniture is Benjamin Zalo. The vice-captain had another strong campaign at centre-half, even if he couldn’t repeat his goalscoring heroics from last season, and came 2nd in the fans’ vote. With Olsen Solberg leaving at the end of the year, Big Ben is set to become our full-time captain when we enter the top flight.
Taking 3rd place in the Player of the Year vote was Melfjord, who had a brilliant season leading our attack. He scored 21 times, with the highlight being a long-range scorer in the Playoff Final against Levanger, which was voted our Goal of the Season. I’d love to take Svein back on loan for a second year, but it won’t surprise you that Odd plan to make the 21-year-old an important part of their first-team in 2024.
Those match ratings tell you a lot about how well we played throughout the season. 16 players started at least 10 matches for us – and 13 of them got an average match rating above 7.00. Two of those who didn’t were midfielders, which already suggests an area of the squad that we can improve upon.
Uran had our highest average match rating in the 1. divisjon, ranking 5th overall with 7.32. Zalo was immediately below him on 7.31, while Sandberg and right-back Dariush Karimirouzbehani also made the top 10, and four more Lyn players were in the top 20.
Melfjord came 3rd in the 1. divisjon’s Top Goalscorer standings, with 19 goals (his other two were in the Cupen and in the Promotion/Relegation Playoff). Though Svein was three goals behind leading marksman Kyham Perrin of Skeid, he consoled himself by having the division’s best shot conversion rate (23%). Our overall conversion rate was 13%, which only Skeid themselves bettered.
Winger Eirik Haugstad was our next-highest scorer with nine goals, while Sandberg and Tafesse chipped in with seven apiece. Across the league phase, we found the net 60 times – six fewer than Skeid, but some way ahead of everyone else.
Uran led the team on assists, setting up nine goals. Haugstad, Dariush and Tafesse were also quite productive in that respect. In fact, only one of our first-team outfielders didn’t record a single goal or assist in 2023. Seeing as he’s a deep-lying playmaker, I was expecting much better from Gaute Høberg Vetti.
Gaute was at least top of the tree for passing accuracy after completing 88% of his passes – the same percentage Adil Zahid completed. In terms of tackles completed, it won’t surprise you that Eng Strand and Sandberg completed the most, averaging three per game. Only Åsane’s Fredrik Arntsen made more tackles than them across the league.
Our defensive record is still a little worrying, as we let in 37 goals during the league phase – three more than last year, and seven more than fellow promotees Sarpsborg and Sogndal. At least we weren’t anything like Skeid (yes, them again), who let in a division-worst 61. [Crikey. Are they more top-heavy than Arsenal in real-life, then?]
And, of course, there’s the issue of our home record. Though we finished 2nd in the away record table (behind Skeid, obviously), we barely made the top six on home form. Only Fredrikstad and Elverum beat us at the Bislett in the league, but SEVEN teams held us to draws. If you’re only winning six out of 15 home games, you need to rely on several other things going your way to meet your objectives. Thankfully for us, they did.
We can’t get away with that in the Eliteserien. This season, one dropped point made the difference between automatic promotion and going through the play-offs. Next year, though, a squandered result could decide whether we stay up or go straight back down.
FINANCIAL UPDATE & TRANSFER PLANS
We’ve made a profit of around €250,000 over the last year, leaving us in a pretty healthy financial situation. Expect that to only improve next season, when we’re likely to get much more TV exposure in the Eliteserien, plus at least €736,000 in league prize money.
With that in mind, I felt it was now time for us to go professional. I asked Patrick Madsen the question on the day after we beat Sandefjord, and though he couldn’t make immediate promises, I think he’ll agree to it in the end.
For one thing, if we were to go up to the Eliteserien and not turn professional, we would be the only semi-professional team in the top flight. Relegation back to the 1. divisjon would surely be inevitable if our players couldn’t enjoy the same luxuries of training every day as they would at other clubs. Then again, not many people gave us much hope of beating several pro sides to promotion from the second tier…
It’s a promising sign that Patrick has massively increased my budgets for next year. I can now spend as much as €300,000 on transfers, and my weekly player wage budget has gone up to around €28,750.
Some quick research tells me that every Eliteserien team spent at least €1million per year (€20,000 per week, more or less) on player wages in 2023. Our current weekly wage bill is €8,000. That’s the scale of the challenge we’ll face in the big time.
We’ll also have to massively improve the squad in almost every area to be competitive. One of the few positions where we probably don’t need an upgrade is goalkeeper. Eivind Aalvik is an excellent 21-year-old goalkeeper who’s only going to get better over the next few seasons. 16-year-old Kasper Morthen is an equally exciting understudy, though we maybe could do with a more experienced custodian alongside him and Eivind.
I’ll definitely have a left-back on my shopping list this winter. Uran should have few problems adapting to the top flight, but he needs fresh competition now that Olsen Solberg is leaving. I might also look to sign a new right-back, because I’m not sure if either Dariush or Markus Frydenlund will be consistent enough for the Eliteserien.
The centre of our defence badly needs attention, with only Zalo certain to keep his place. We’re definitely saying goodbye to Anders Lübeck after seven seasons, leaving Haugstad and Zahid as the last of my ‘originals’. It’s also unlikely that Erik Haugland will return on loan, as – just like with Melfjord – Odd want him in their first-team squad. That’s probably for the best, seeing how Erik’s form dropped off late in the year.
But what about Eirik Melby and Marius Skorpen, I hear you ask? They both had difficult seasons on loan with Strømmen and Lørenskog respectively in the 2. divisjon, with Eirik barely keeping his team clear of relegation. If we were still in the 1. divisjon, Melby would definitely have been in my senior squad next year, but our quick progress means that he and Skorpen will likely be loaned out again.
This will be the winter when our midfield finally gets the upgrades it deserves. We’ve got some very solid players in that department, and the development of 19-year-old Reidar Huus into a semi-regular playmaker has been very exciting. None of them are really first-division standard yet, though, so I’ll want to bring in some more experienced midfielders to help them out.
I think we’re okay on the wings. At 29, right-winger Haugstad has just completed his best ever season and can look ahead to playing top-tier football for the first time since 2016, when he was at Stabæk. 28-year-old Tafesse is also at his peak and could continue to be a productive inside-forward on the left. We mustn’t ignore the promise Brage Karterud has shown as a left-winger either.
We’ll go into the new year with the unpredictable Niklas Helgesen as our only recognised senior striker. Getting Melfjord back for one more year is more of a dream than a realistic proposition. Meanwhile, Trøen is leaving us for good after getting the sign-off his Lyn career deserved, scoring in his final two home games. Having netted 54 goals in 108 appearances, the Bastionen will remember Martin fondly for a long time.
I want two different frontmen to arrive at Lyn over the winter. Firstly, I want a pacey and clinical poacher in the mould of Melfjord or pre-injury Trøen. Secondly, I’d like to bring in a big, selfless and aerially strong centre-forward who can act as either a target man or a deep-lying forward.
I might or might not be planning a big tactical shift for the Eliteserien…
YOUTH GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
This year saw 2019 youth alumnus Svein Melfjord return home to Lyn, albeit only on loan. We know all about Svein’s recent exploits, but what about those other youth starlets who left the Bislett? It’s been a very interesting season for one young man in particular…
Tor Fritzøe Östman (Class of 2019): Tor excelled for Rosenborg early in 2023, getting two goals and six assists in 17 Eliteserien games. The Norway Under-21s winger agreed a new contract at Lerkendal in June… but then signed for Real Sociedad for €650,000 in August before being loaned back to RBK. He helped them secure the league title before being named in the Eliteserien Dream Team and winning the Breakthrough of the Year award. So yes, it was quite a good year for him!
Martin Knudtzon (2019): Martin also enjoyed a breakthrough this year, establishing himself as Tromsø’s first-choice right-back after two seasons on loan at Tromsdalen. He made 26 league appearances for Gutan, who lost in the 1. divisjon play-offs for the second year in a row.
Jon Andersen (2020): Jon’s development has remained slow and steady. The hard-working forward scored three goals in six games for 1. divisjon side Sarpsborg in the first half of this year. He was then loaned to Keflavík in Iceland’s top division – the Úrvalsdeild – and bagged another three goals across nine appearances.
Dan Tandberg (2020): Centre-back Dan became frustrated over a lack of first-team chances at Brann. He made one Eliteserien appearance for them this year, being named ‘man of the match’ in a 2-1 away win at Bodø/Glimt in July. Less than a month later, the Norway Under-21s international made a €69,000 transfer to fellow top-flight side Kongsvinger, where’s he already played in three league games.
Stian Bogsveen (2021): 18-year-old Stian is now beginning to make an impact at Odd. After showing good form at reserve level, the pacey striker was promoted to the first-team and scored three times in 17 Eliteserien appearances (mostly from the bench).
2023 NORWEGIAN SEASON ROUND-UP
Eliteserien
1. divisjon
2. divisjon, Avdeling 1
2. divjson, Avdeling 2
3. divisjon Champions
Avdeling 1: Sandefjord 2 (Promoted: KFUM Oslo)
Avdeling 2: Harstad
Avdeling 3: Viking 2
Avdeling 4: Sogndal 2 (Promoted: Nest-Sotra)
Avdeling 5: Kristiansund 2
Avdeling 6: Ull/Kisa
Cupen
Final: Stabæk 3-2 Odd (aet)
National Under-19s Championship
1st: Brann, 2nd: Sogndal, 3rd: Molde
Champions League performances (2022/2023)
Molde – Champions Qualifying Round 3 (lost to Sparta Praha)
Europa League performances (2022/2023)
Lillestrøm – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 3 (lost to PAOK)
Strømsgodset – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 3 (lost to IFK Norrköping)
Brann – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 3 (lost to Rangers)
Molde – Champions Qualifying Round 4 (lost to Crvena Zvezda)
Champions League performances (2023/2024)
Molde – Champions Qualifying Round 3 (lost to Lechia)
Europa League performances (2023/2024)
Stabæk – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to Mouscron)
Haugesund – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 3 (lost to PAOK)
Rosenborg – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 4 (lost to AA Gent)
Molde – 4th in Group J
And so, having risen from the ashes and climbed Norway’s lower leagues, Lyn are on their way back to the Eliteserien. However, you’ll have to wait a little longer to see how they fare in the top flight, because I’m now taking a short break from blogging for personal reasons. I’m definitely taking next week off, but I could – all being well – return on the week beginning Monday 16 September.
If you want to be informed when I do return from my break, you can follow me on Twitter @Fuller_FM. Also feel free to hit the “Follow Fuller FM” button on the sidebar.
“Takk for lesing!”
Fuller FM 
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