2024 was a big year for Lyn 1896, who made their long-awaited return to the Eliteserien. 14 years after the original club went into liquidation, Lyn were once again competing with Molde, Rosenborg and all the other major Norwegian clubs.
Could Marit Enstad defy the odds and keep her team in the top flight, or would their battle for survival end in tears? Would they enjoy a lengthy run in the Cupen? All those questions will be answered in this Season Review, which also includes player awards, stats, and a round-up of the domestic campaign.
Of course, you can find all six story chapters from the 2024 season in the links provided: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. I would strongly suggest you read the last chapter in particular – if you haven’t done so already – before you carry on here.
ELITESERIEN
We kicked off our Eliteserien campaign with a home draw against Start before nearly clinching a shock win at Molde. That was followed a week later by our first wobble – a 2-0 defeat to fellow promoted side Sarpsborg – before we secured victory at the fourth attempt at Odd. Mind you, we did need an injury-time winner from the evergreen Eirik Haugstad.
April began with another 3-3 thriller away from home, this time against Strømsgodset, who were 3-1 down before breaking my hearts. Rosenborg were far too strong for us in the next fixture, but we rebounded against Bodø/Glimt for our first home league win this season.
Then the troubles really began. In eight matches between late April and early June, we collected three draws, five defeats – and one goal from captain Benjamin Zalo. Our inability to score sent us plummeting down the table and into the relegation zone at the halfway stage.
Switching to a high-pressing 4-4-2 system delivered some promising results just before the mid-season break. After Haugstad saved us a point at Start, the winger and his fellow Lyn stalwart Adil Zahid helped us to a 2-0 revenge win at Sarpsborg. We thus went into the next phase of the season sitting in 13th.
Things continued to look up for us in August. Though we suffered narrow defeats to the ‘Big Two’, we absolutely destroyed Odd and then ground out a 1-0 at Bodø/Glimt. Our resurgence was largely down to the scoring form of two strikers – returning loanee Svein Melfjord, and 16-year-old prospect Vladimir Mølsæter.
Unfortunately, while we had found our scoring form again, our defence sprang many leaks as we went without a win in our next five games. The nadir was a 6-2 thrashing by Viking, which came about after a red card for our on-loan Croatian forward Tin Zanchi. That wasn’t the last time a sending-off would cost us dear.
A Kot Chol Tafesse-inspired comeback win over Kongsvinger appeared to have given us a good chance of avoiding the drop. A few more wins would have done the trick, but draws against Sogndal and Vålerenga – and a painful 3-2 loss to rivals Stabæk – saw us finish in 14th place. We would have to negotiate a Promotion/Relegation Playoff against Sandefjord, whom we had beaten to take our place in the Eliteserien last year.
After winning the first leg 1-0 at home, things were looking up. Then – with the second leg level at 1-1 – our midfielder Christoffer Akermann was sent off for a late sliding challenge. That allowed Sandefjord to take control of proceedings and put our defence under intense pressure. They were just minutes from winning 4-2 (and 4-3 on aggregate) when Melfjord forced extra-time with his third goal of the night.
Two early extra-time goals saw Sandefjord move into a 6-3 second-leg lead, effectively breaking our spirit. Though Melfjord did score once more late on, it wasn’t enough to avoid a 6-5 aggregate defeat – and relegation back to the 1. divisjon. Shortly after the loss, I resigned as Lyn manager after six seasons in charge.
CUPEN
We easily saw off Fløy 5-0 in our Cupen opener, but fellow lower-league side Sprint-Jeløy put up more of a fight before eventually crumbling. That put us through to a Round 3 tie at home to Fredrikstad, who took us to extra-time before a strike from Niklas Helgesen continued our run.
2. divisjon side Raufoss now stood between us and a Quarter Final. We were miserable in the first half and trailed 2-1 at the break, but a Mølsæter double saw us turn it around and power to victory. A fortnight after that, we defied the odds to knock out giants Molde, with Ole Jørgen Falk Larsen booking our place in the Semi Final.
Some of the Bastionen probably thought a home game against 1. divisjon Levanger basically gave us a free ticket to the Cupen Final. That really wasn’t the case. It took us 103 minutes to breach Levanger’s defence through Melfjord… and even that didn’t break them. A late equaliser took the game to penalties, where more drama ensued.
After teenage goalkeeper Kasper Morthen saved Levanger’s fifth penalty, Tafesse had the chance to put us through to the Final against Haugesund. Sadly, his spot-kick too was saved. A few moments later, Andreas Uran felt pressure of a different kind, having to score our seventh penalty to keep us in the tie. When the Levanger keeper tipped Uran’s effort away to secure a 6-5 away win, our dreams were cruelly dashed.
AWARDS & STATISTICS
After three years of left-back dominance, it was a striker who won the 2024 Lyn Fans’ Player of the Season award. Melfjord had been almost as productive in his second season back on loan from Odd as he’d been in his first. Though his form could be somewhat erratic, he still managed to get 19 goals – including FOUR in our heartbreaking Playoff defeat to Sandefjord.
Svein was also named as our Young Player of the Season, though it was a little hard to believe that he was still only 22. I’m sure his career will now go from strength to strength, and that he will start banging in the goals for Odd. Who knows, maybe he will soon follow a fellow Lyn youth graduate into the Norway senior set-up?
2nd place in the fans’ vote went to Haugstad. The right-winger became part of the Lyn furniture when we were in the 3. divisjon, but he still performed well in the Eliteserien, getting 14 goals/assists across all competitions this year. It was surprising that Andreas Uran took 3rd place, especially as the left-back’s form got so bad late in the season.
Winter signing Thomas Zernichow was the scorer of our Goal of the Season. The midfielder’s equalising screamer at home to Kongsvinger in October helped turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 win (which ultimately meant little, in truth). Thomas had been pretty solid for us this year, so I thought he would’ve been named our Signing of the Season, but no…
That latter award surprisingly went to right-back Andreas Rishovd, who arrived at the Bislett only in August! He started promisingly but turned out to be only a slight upgrade on our previous first-choice Markus Frydenlund.
Another surprise was that Jesper Sandberg was named as an attacking midfielder in our Team of the Season. For one thing, we sold Sandberg to Jerv in August because he was not good enough for the Eliteserien. For another, Jesper was a central midfielder, whom we had NEVER used in the attacking midfield strata!
[More cases of reserve players breaking the stats. Magnus Høyland obviously didn’t keep 12 clean sheets or concede 20 goals in just two Cupen games, both of which were shut-out wins. As for Uran, he should have two assists, three ‘player of the match’ awards, and my overdue apologies for dropping him to the stiffs.]
If you want an idea of just how much we struggled in the Eliteserien, those statistics sum us up. Only three Lyn players featured in at least 15 games and got average match ratings above 7.00 – Melfjord, Haugstad, and Akermann. The latter was a solid if underused holding midfielder, but the Bastionen might take a long time to forgive Chris for his fateful Playoff red card (the last of three we received this year).
Melfjord’s 16 league goals ranked him as the Eliteserien’s joint-top scorer, but he missed out on the award to Rosenborg’s Remy Renard, having played fewer games than the Frenchman. There’s no chance Svein will drop back down a division after the year he’s had, so he’ll leave a huge gap to fill up front.
Helgesen scored all but one of his five goals in the Cupen against weaker opposition, so he’s probably not the man to take over. However, Haugstad – who netted seven times and was also our top assister – should remain productive on the wing if the new Lyn manager still wants him.
Playmaker August Erlingmark is another player who could move on following relegation. He was our pass master, completing 87% of his passes, with the likes of Akermann, Zernichow and Sander Eng Strand not far behind. Indeed, the team generally kept the ball quite well, averaging 52% possession (that’s more than everyone else in the Eliteserien except 4th-placed Bodø/Glimt).
To be honest, though, scoring goals and/or maintaining possession weren’t our big problem this year. Only Stabæk let in more goals than our 48 goals over the regular league season, while we also had one of the worst disciplinary records. Then there were all those costly errors – particularly those involving Uran and Eng Strand, whose mistakes directly led to four goals between them.
One player who couldn’t really be blamed for our failings was goalkeeper Eivind Aalvik. While he only kept seven clean sheets in the regular season, he produced several top saves to stop us leaking even more goals. I’ve no doubt that Eivind will be playing for a bigger club than Lyn next year.
Lastly, we must address the big reason why we failed to stay up. Away from home, we had a decent record of 3 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats – 15 points from 15 games. At the Bislett, though, we collected one point fewer, as this table shows:
That’s right. Only Haugesund fared worse at home than we did. The Bislett wasn’t so much a fortress as an open cabin.
I’ll admit the signs were there last year, when we were unconvincing on home soil but still got promoted. My priority this term should’ve been to make us harder to beat in front of our own fans, to give us a better chance of survival. In that sense, I failed – horribly.
YOUTH GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Let’s now have another look at five of our former youth graduates, who all left the Bislett early in their careers:
Tor Fritzøe Östman (Class of 2019): Tor officially linked up with Real Sociedad this year after winning an Eliteserien title with former club Rosenborg. The 21-year-old right-winger has so far struggled to break into Los Txuri-Urdin’s first-team, making only six La Liga appearances – all but one as a substitute. However, he did win his first two senior caps for Norway in October.
Martin Knudtzon (2019): Martin consolidated his place at right-back for Tromsø in the first half of this year. His steady form attracted interest from fellow 1. divisjon side Lillestrøm, who signed him for €38,500 in August. Though the 22-year-old’s recent form hasn’t been great, he did help the Kanarifugla to secure automatic promotion back to the Eliteserien.
Jon Andersen (2020): It’s been yet another frustrating year at Sarpsborg for Jon. The once-promising pressing forward featured in 10 Eliteserien matches this term but only scored once – at home to Kongsvinger in May.
Dan Tandberg (2020): Dan didn’t stay at Kongsvinger for long. In April, just eight months after arriving at Gjemselund from Brann, he was sold to Kristiansund for €57,000. It was a blessing in disguise for the 20-year-old centre-back, as Kongsvinger were relegated, though he has so far made only 12 appearances for his latest club.
Stian Bogsveen (2021): After a promising first year in Odd’s senior set-up, Stian was expected to kick on in 2024, when he was loaned to newly-promoted Allsvenskan side IF Brommapojkarna. The teenage striker scored against Östersunds early in the season, but that was the only time he found the net over 23 league appearances in Sweden. Unsurprisingly, BP were relegated straight back to the Superettan.
2024 NORWEGIAN SEASON ROUND-UP
Eliteserien
1. divisjon
2. divisjon, Avdeling 1
2. divjson, Avdeling 2
3. divisjon Champions
Avdeling 1: Asker
Avdeling 2: Notodden
Avdeling 3: Start 2
Avdeling 4: Florø
Avdeling 5: Tynset
Avdeling 6: Finnsnes
Cupen
Final: Haugesund 2-1 Levanger
National Under-19s Championship
1st: Brann, 2nd: Molde, 3rd: Lyn 1896
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
Champions League performances (2023/2024)
Molde – Champions Qualifying Round 2 (lost to BATE)
Europa League performances (2023/2024)
Stabæk – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 2 (lost to CSKA-Sofia)
Molde – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 3 (lost to Trabzonspor)
Brann – Best-Placed Qualifying Round 4 (lost to Anderlecht)
Rosenborg – 4th in Group L
SERIES REVIEW
And so we come to the final part of this story – a review of my six seasons in charge of Lyn. We’ll start by looking at my overall Best XI [a few of the statistics aren’t quite right, partly because this includes stats from the 2018 season – before Marit took charge].
Aalvik was the obvious choice to go in goal. Similarly, I can’t complain about having Frydenlund at right-back (a traditional problem position for us) and our old friend Oskar Hansen at left-back. Captain Zalo was our best centre-half by miles and deserved to be in the XI, but former skipper Anders Lübeck was surprisingly overlooked for Falk Larsen (after one season on loan).
The midfield includes a few more popular figures in playmaker Mads Sande (who spent last season on loan in Iceland) and box-to-box player Sandberg. Just ahead of them is one of only two players who stayed at Lyn throughout my entire reign. While Zahid was never really the first name on my scoresheet, he was always a useful attacking midfielder who could suddenly change a game.
On the right wing is my other surviving original – Haugstad, who has made a club-high 152 appearances and scored 32 goals in the last six seasons. On the left wing, Tafesse contributed 24 goals and 18 assists over four years.
Lastly, we have Melfjord up front after he enjoyed two sensational seasons on loan from Odd. Combined with the two goals he scored as a 16-year-old straight from our academy in 2019, Svein has found the net 42 times in a Lyn jersey. Only the iconic Martin Trøen – who netted 54 goals in 108 games from 2019 to 2023 – was more prolific.
Martin’s marksmanship was especially important to us in my early years. We finished 3rd in our 2. divisjon group in 2019, but threw away an opportunity to reach the play-offs. ‘Second-season syndrome’ then hit us in 2020, and we would’ve been relegated but for three wins in our last five games.
Our fortunes changed for the better when Tafesse and Zalo arrived in 2021, inspiring us to the title – and automatic promotion to the 1. divisjon. The 2022 season almost saw us clinch back-to-back promotions, but Bodø/Glimt pipped us to 2nd on goal difference before Tromsø edged us out in the play-offs.
Another agonising 3rd-place finish followed in 2023. This time, though, we swept through the 1. divisjon play-offs to set up a two-legged promotion/relegation tie with Sandefjord. Despite losing the first leg 1-0 at home, we fought back to beat them 3-1 and take their place in the Eliteserien. Little did we know that Sandefjord would exact revenge at the end of 2024…
So why did we fail to survive this year? I have a few theories.
The counter-attacking 4-3-3 system that had worked so well for us in the lower leagues was not all that effective in the Eliteserien. Defensively, it was pretty solid, but our attackers were often isolated.
It wasn’t until I switched to a more intense 4-4-2 that we started scoring regularly and getting results. However, this new system often left us exposed at the back, and the injuries also started piling up.
With nine players arriving in pre-season, I also think we changed too much too soon after promotion. It didn’t help either that I wasn’t prepared for the sudden switch to professional status just two months before the first league game, leading me to rush into some signings. At least two of my recruits really weren’t good enough for the Eliteserien (apologies, Robin Lorentzen and Dejan Corovic).
My recruitment policy also failed in one key area; after releasing former skipper Lübeck, we had few obvious team leaders who could inspire us when things got tough. Zalo was our only player with a Leadership attribute of 13 or higher, and even sending him on a leadership course in the spring had little effect. In fact, only four other players scored 12 in Leadership – Helgesen, Mølsæter, and loanees Falk Larsen and Filip Sjöqvist.
On the plus side, our finances look pretty healthy, with €1.8million in the bank balance. That won’t be the case for long after we drop into the 1. divisjon, but we’re not short on valuable players we could sell to balance the books. Aalvik and Mølsæter in particular could be heading for bigger and better things if the new manager decides to cash in.
But, of course, the task of rebuilding Lyn after relegation won’t be my problem. After six enjoyable years, I’m burnt out and need a break from football. In fact, I can’t see myself managing any other club than my beloved Lyn, so this is probably the end of my coaching career.
Dette er Marit Enstad, som sier farvel.
And that’s all, folks. It has been a pleasure to give you this Football Manager 2019 story over the last few months. The feedback I’ve received – especially from Lyn fans and players – has been magnificent, and there’ll always be a little place in my heart for this wonderful club.
Unfortunately, recent weeks have not been kind to me personally. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve struggled terribly with stress, anxiety, and the loss of my grandmother, amongst other things.
Much like with my Shrewsbury story, real-life spilled over into FM, greatly affecting my enjoyment of this save during the final season. Many gamers use video games to escape personal crises, but when said games are actually making those problems worse, it’s probably a good idea to stop.
With the Lyn story finished, I’m now officially done with FM19. I’ll post a blog update in the next few days summarising my experiences with the game, after which I’ll announce my future plans regarding FM20 – and more.
“Takk for lesing, og farvel.”
Fuller FM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.