After a short break from blogging, I’m back with the latest installment of my Football Manager 2019 blog career with Lyn 1896.
As you can probably tell from the new title image, this is an exciting time at Lyn, as they’ve just been promoted to the Eliteserien! They’ll be squaring up with Norway’s biggest teams throughout 2024 as they look to consolidate their top-flight status. It won’t be easy, but I’m sure they can do it.
Let’s now catch up with manager Marit Enstad, who has heavily rebuilt her squad for the year ahead. Before we talk transfers, though, I hear she has some important news to share…
BIG NEWS
Hei, det er Marit, and welcome to a new era at Lyn 1896! We are not only back in the Eliteserien for the first time since 2009, but also…
…we have turned fully professional! Chairman Patrick Madsen made the announcement just before the new season’s league fixtures were published. That meant we could now offer our players and backroom staff full-time contracts, allowing them to work seven days a week.
The very first member of the Lyn staff to go fully pro, however, was myself. Patrick gave me a three-year contract on €2,400 per week, though I’ll have to take a 30% pay cut if we get relegated. I was now earning more than enough money to finally quit my part-time teaching job and put all my focus into football.
The board have shown even more faith in me by agreeing to pay for a coaching course as I work towards my UEFA A Licence. It’ll take about a year for me to complete the course.
Another major effect of us turning professional is that we can start properly scouting players from outside Norway. We’re initially expanding our scouting network slowly, as I’ve assigned talent-spotters to Denmark and Sweden (as well as at home). Once we’ve become established in the Eliteserien, we’ll begin looking further afield in Europe.
With that, surely building a squad capable of competing in the top division should have been easy, right? I wish I could say that. In truth, this has been THE most stressful transfer window of my Lyn tenure, and I still have some big doubts about whether we’re ready for the Eliteserien.
TRANSFERS OUT
We’ve released five first-team players, including two club favourites. Captain Anders Lübeck made 113 league appearances in six-and-a-half years at Lyn and helped us to three promotions. Free-scoring striker Martin Trøen left us for a second time, having made a couple of valuable contributions following his return from an ACL injury.
Veteran left-back Joackim Olsen Solberg – our 2022 Player of the Season – moved on to a new late-career challenge with Notodden in the 3. divisjon. We also parted ways with centre-half Tobias Ødegård and playmaker Gaute Høberg Vetti.
Seven players have gone on loan, and an eighth will likely follow soon. In hindsight, I think one of those loans was a mistake, but I’ll get to that later.
The first man out was 20-year-old reserve defender Geir Skeie, who had a lot of potential but not the tactical awarness required to play in the Eliteserien. He will get some top-flight football under his belt this year – in Iceland, with newly-promoted Úrvalsdeild outfit Breiðablik.
Also Iceland-bound was midfielder Mads Sande. Mads had contributed a lot since joining us in 2020, but he was another player that I felt wasn’t Eliteserien-quality. After failing in our efforts to sell him, we agreed to a season-loan deal with Keflavík, who will pay all his €400-per-week wages.
Closer to home, midfielders Rune Bjørshol and Ingmar Larsen were farmed out to Eidsvold Turn and Strømmen respectively in the 2. divisjon. (After your experiences with Asker last year, could you please try not to get Strømmen relegated this time, Ingmar?)
Promising playmaker Reidar Huus – who made 15 league appearances for us last year – will also have a season at that level with our feeder club Lørenskog. A strong campaign there should give him the confidence to really kick on. Surprisingly, Lørenskog don’t have any keepers registered, so we’ve agreed in principle to loan our Under-19s goalie Eirik Sunde to them as well.
Centre-back Eirik Melby (now aged 20) agreed to a third year out on loan. Having spent the previous two years building up his experience in the 2. divisjon, he’s now moved up a division and joined Skeid. They conceded 61 goals in 30 league games last year, so I’m expecting Eirik to be a busy man.
Then came the ‘mistake’. After signing a new right-back, I decided that Dariush Karimirouzbehani was no longer required and accepted a loan offer from Allsvenskan side IK Brage. Then something happened with that right-back, which I’ll explain more in the next part of this article.
TRANSFERS IN
Nine players have arrived at Lyn this season, and I’m sure your eyes are already drawn to the name in the middle of that list. I’d honestly thought Svein Melfjord had outgrown us, and that Odd would make the 21-year-old striker an important part of their senior squad this year. Perhaps not, seeing as Odd put Svein up for loan again and agreed to let us have his services for a second season!
Melfjord’s explosiveness and cool finishing were critical for us last year, as he bagged 21 goals to fire us to promotion. He has scored in the Eliteserien before for Odd, but this will be his first taste of regular top-flight football.
It seems we’ve become an unofficial feeder club to Odd, as they also lent us Christoffer Akermann – a tall and energetic defensive midfielder who can also play at centre-half. 20-year-old Akermann had been a regular starter at the Skagerak Arena for the past two seasons, but he perhaps lacked consistency. With his professional personality and strong tackling, I’m confident Chris will do a fine job for us.
Another central defensive option for us this year is Ole Jørgen Falk Larsen – a brave and solid 20-year-old with excellent positional awareness. Falk Larsen broke into Fredrikstad’s senior squad last year before being picked up by Kristiansund, from whom we’ve taken him on a season-long loan.
Aged 24, free signing Robin Lorentzen has rather more experience than Akermann and Falk Larsen. The former Rosenborg reserve recently returned to Norway after three years in Iceland’s top flight with Fjölnir and Valur. Robin is very physical and powerful in the air, though he’s a bit on the slow side.
I also took another centre-back – former Lokeren youngster Max De Ruyver – on trial, but sent him back to Belgium after two weeks because he seriously lacked composure. I’ve since heard that De Ruyver has retired from football aged just 21, which perhaps tells you a lot about his abilities [or lack thereof].
The hard-working Thomas Zernichow adds some flair and technique to our midfield after ending a six-year stint with 1. divisjon stalwarts Jerv. He can be used as either a deep-lying playmaker or a more advanced one.
He was our last permanent signing for a couple of weeks, until we brought in a couple of free agents from Sweden. 25-year-old August Erlingmark was a regular part of IFK Göteborg’s midfield until recently, and it’s not hard to see why. Erlingmark has a great work ethic, he’s an excellent team player, and he loves to set the tempo. Even at €900 per week, he’s a bargain signing.
The versatile Andreas Öhman also started his professional career at Göteborg, though he failed to make the grade there and was recently let go by Halmstads. The 26-year-old’s athleticism and technical ability make him a fine option at right-back or right-wing. He too is costing us €900 per week, so I really hoped he wouldn’t…
…pick up a major injury in pre-season. Oh man!
We probably won’t see Andreas make his competitive debut for us until mid-April. My decision to loan Dariush out now looked stupid, seeing as it left us with only Markus Frydenlund at right-back… and maybe Eirik Haugstad, if you really want to stretch it.
After scouring the market for another alternative, I signed up Dejan Corovic on a year-long contract. Dejan is 31 years old, he lacks determination, he’s just left mid-table 1. divisjon side Arendal… and he’s never played in the Eliteserien. Yes, I’m afraid he was the best option I could find.
Ah well. Only four months to go until I can recall Dariush from Sweden, I suppose…
Lastly, we brought in a third Swede to give Andreas Uran some competition at left-back. 21-year-old Filip Sjöqvist has bags of stamina and shows plenty of ambition, which could come in handy during his season-long loan from Göteborg.
YOUTH INTAKE
Wow! What an exciting youth intake that is! We’ve got four potential star additions to our Under-19s, including one player who could be truly exceptional. Let’s look at three of them.
Here’s a budding box-to-box midfielder in Tommy Mathisen [who sounds like he could be a distant Norwegian relative of the American singer Johnny Mathis]. Tommy is quite high on aggression and low on determination, but he’s agile and pretty well-rounded. He’s already shown his potential by scoring a stunning goal against Fredrikstad in pre-season.
An interesting option up front is Vladimir Mølsæter, whom we’ve nicknamed ‘Vlad the Impaler’ [a peculiar choice, seeing as his Aggression is only 5]. For someone who’s only just turned 16, he’s remarkably strong and selfless, and he can be a real danger in the air. A fine career as a target man or a deep-lying forward surely awaits.
Indeed, our coaches rate Vlad so highly that I have already fast-tracked him to our Eliteserien squad. The same goes for this guy…
A decade after Martin Ødegaard broke through at Strømsgodset, Norwegian football has a new attacking midfielder to get ridiculously excited about. For one thing, Max Oinas has a sublime first touch, a keen eye for a killer pass, and he’s just torn up the Oslo Under-16s league. For another, he’s already rated as the best player in our first-team on overall ability. He’s only 16!
And if that wasn’t absurd enough, the bookmakers have already made Max one of the favourites to win the Eliteserien’s Player of the Year award! Again, he’s only SIXTEEN!!
Okay, let’s calm down expectations a bit. Unfortunately, we won’t use an attacking midfielder very often this year, so I might instead retrain Oinas as an inside-forward or even a deep-lying forward to get him into the team. He also has a ‘realistic’ and unsporting attitude on life, which could cause problems in the future.
BACKROOM STAFF
There’ve also been some big changes to our backroom this year. We moved most of our existing staff onto full-time contracts, but a few others – some due to their contract demands – left to be replaced by other, cheaper options.
The biggest alterations have come in our medical team. Both our first-team physios wanted far too much money to turn professional, so we let them go and looked elsewhere. New head physio Ole Petter Meland previously worked for Sandnes Ulf, while Dane Mathias Jarski recently left Florø. We also appointed 34-year-old Espen Olsen as the club’s first Head of Sports Science.
We’ve given our custodians some extra attention this year by appointing Onar Nymoen as a second goalkeeping coach, working alongside Nikolai Venedik. [Nymoen’s GK Coaching attributes are all 14+, and he has 17 for Motivating.]
Nybergsund’s former chief scout Richard Falch has joined our recruitment team. Lastly, we appointed Mustapha Achrifi as our new Under-19s manager, following Kjell André Thu‘s decision to take on the top job at Ull/Kisa.
PRE-SEASON
Erm… this is a concern. Our pre-season results were probably the worst we’ve had since I became manager, and it’s not just the defence I’m worried about. When reserve striker Anders Andersen is your joint-top scorer with TWO goals to his name, that isn’t a promising sign of things to come.
We started off with a dominant but unconvincing 2-0 win at 3. divisjon side Drøbak-Frogn. We then moved up a tier to face Strømmen in a frustrating and slow-burning match. Strømmen eventually took the lead after 75 minutes, but Jesper Sandberg – our play-off hero – saved us from defeat six minutes later.
On the plus side, we almost grabbed a home draw against Danish Superliga side Aalborg, despite having our backs to the wall for most of the match. Kot Chol Tafesse put us ahead from an incisive counter-attack in the 37th minute, and we held firm for about half an hour before AaB broke through. They then struck again three minutes from time to deliver us a cruel 2-1 defeat.
Worse was to come in our next two games, each of which we lost 2-0. Firstly, Jerv’s midfield starlets delivered a masterclass, with 18-year-old Khaleqdaad Zadeh setting up two goals, including one for Brian Therkelsen – a 17-year-old ‘model citizen’. That was followed by a similar humbling – on home soil – at the hands of Örebro, who play in Sweden’s second-tier Superettan.
We then crossed the border and played a couple of matches against Swedish lower-league teams. Sander Eng Strand was one of two players to be sent off in the goalless first half of a bizarre encounter with Vänersborgs FK, which we won 4-1 after a brace from Haugstad. Things were less stressful against Jönköpings Södra, though we only found the net twice.
Our pre-season ended with a rematch of last year’s Playoff Semi Final against Fredrikstad, which was rather closer than the original game had been. Zernichow missed one penalty and Melfjord scored another for us as we battled towards a 3-2 win, though Fredrikstad netted the first and last goals.
SQUAD REPORT
As usual, we end the first part of a new season by looking at the new-look Lyn squad. These are the men who’ll be looking to keep us in the Eliteserien:
The excellent Eivind Aalvik retains the number 1 jersey, and a commanding goalkeeper like him should have few problems adapting to Eliteserien football. The Bastionen have now forgotten he was a former Stabæk youth player and adopted him as one of our own.
16-year-old Kasper Morthen is an agile and very promising deputy who has already been capped by Norway at Under-19s level. I’ll look to give Kasper some first-team experience in the Cupen this year. I also haven’t forgotten about reserve keeper Magnus Høyland, who could feature if anything happens to Aalvik and/or Morthen.
Following Olsen Solberg’s departure, Benjamin Zalo has now taken on the captaincy full-time. This is the giant centre-half’s fourth full season at the Bislett, where he’s now established as a fan favourite. Big Ben’s strength and aerial ability can’t be questioned, but his lack of composure could be a problem at this level.
That’s partly why I brought in Lorentzen as a more assured central defensive partner to Zalo. 20-year-old loanees Falk Larsen and Akermann are also good, athetic options to play at the back, though I’ll mainly use the latter as a defensive midfield workhorse.
Andreas Uran was an instant hit at Lyn last year, becoming our fans’ Player of the Season after registering nine assists from left-back. The consistent 24-year-old has been rewarded with the vice-captaincy, though it remains to be seen if he can step up to the Eliteserien.
Should Uran struggle in the big league, he’ll face a stiff challenge from our third defensive loanee. Sjöqvist is an energetic young Swede who isn’t the most creative left-back by any means, but his concentration rarely wavers. Speaking of Swedish imports…
Andreas Öhman looks like a good free signing on the right flank, where he can play as a wing-back or a winger. Öhman reads the game well and has some very solid attributes, though as I mentioned earlier, it’ll be a while before the Bastionen get to see the 26-year-old in league action.
While the new boy recovers from his injury, the aggressive but inconsistent Frydenlund will have a chance to make the right-back spot his own again. We also have Corovic – a brave and competent man-marker who’s now our oldest player at 31.
I’m very excited about what Erlingmark – our other recruit from across the border – could bring to Lyn. The selfless central midfielder is an excellent deep-lying playmaker who could be the difference between survival and relegation. If you’ve played 140 Allsvenskan matches for IFK Göteborg, you’ve got to be pretty decent.
Other midfield options include Sander Eng Strand, who was originally signed two years ago as a holding player but now tends to move from box to box. He’s also resilient, having broken back into the team late last season to help us to promotion. Those play-offs also brought the best out of Sandberg, whose match-winner at Sandefjord will never be forgotten by the Bastionen.
Zernichow is our most versatile midfielder, and also our most experienced (even if a lot of that experience was in the 1. divisjon). I don’t think anyone else at Lyn can match the 28-year-old’s ball control and his ability to change a game with a moment of magic.
Zernichow would’ve been a guaranteed starter for us last season, but the emergence of 16-year-old boy wonder Oinas has potentially overshadowed his arrival. If Thomas and Max can live up to expectations, I suspect our intelligent and long-serving mezzala Adil Zahid might struggle to get into the team again.
At least my only other remaining ‘original’ is still a big part of my plans. Haugstad has contributed 22 league goals and 20 league assists from right-wing since I became manager in 2019, hence his longevity. Eirik has just turned 30 and might start declining soon, but his professionalism and big-game expertise still make him a great asset.
With Haugstad still in fine fettle and Öhman having arrived, Yannis Moula‘s chance to establish himself at Lyn might have slipped away. For all his technical ability and pace, Yannis just doesn’t deliver the goods regularly. Expect him to leave the club this summer, either on loan or permanently.
Tafesse has been one of our most exciting players over the last three seasons. The left-sided forward has flair in abundance and a knack for free-kicks, not to mention a fine scoring record. The Kenya international is a real late-bloomer who’s about to play top-flight football for the first time, aged 28.
21-year-old Niklas Helgesen could still put pressure on Kot Chol, but this talented and erratic forward needs to become more of a team player. The same applies to Brage Karterud – a similarly-young and pacey left-winger who could hit the heights if he put his mind to it.
Local hero Melfjord leads the Lyn frontline again, having shown consistently ice-cool finishing during his first loan spell from Odd. I reckon that if the 21-year-old gets around half of the 21 goals he netted last term, we should do enough to stay up. The Bastionen should enjoy watching Svein while they can, though, because I suspect his career is really about to take off.
If Melfjord represents this club’s present, then Mølsæter represents its future. Though Vlad is more of a support striker than an out-and-out poacher, the schoolboy has a work ethic that belies his age and the talent to take him far.
Tactically, I’ve made a few changes to the 4-3-3. For starters, the deep-lying playmaker is now deeper-lying, with a box-to-box midfielder ahead of him, and an attacking mezzala accompanying our winger out wide. Our left wing-back is now simply a full-back, which should hopefully leave us less exposed at the back while not compromising our attacking prospects.
I’ve also altered the 4-2-3-1 slightly. Playing positive, high-risk football against far better oppositions will probably not end well, so we’re going to be a little more cautious. We also won’t pass into space quite as much, as I’ve found that it’s more suited to a low-pressing, counter-attacking system than a top-heavy system such as this.
You might be interested to know that we also have a ‘Plan C’, in case neither of these systems work out in the Eliteserien. If the worst comes to the worst, we’ll probably switch to a direct, no-nonsense, high-pressing 4-4-2. I’ve used it a couple of times in pre-season but it still needs some work, so I won’t share it with you until I’m ready to.
So what do you reckon, guys? Do Lyn have what it takes to stay in the Eliteserien for the long term, or will it be an uphill struggle? A strong start to the season could be critical, so please come back on Friday to find out how Marit’s men get on.
“Takk for lesing!”
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