A poor first season in Denmark saw Trebor Mahtal fearing the sack at the lowest point of his 13-year Football Manager career. He’d led FC Midtjylland to a pretty disappointing 6th place in the league after they failed to get going in his first season in charge.
The summer saw record goalscorer and appearances holder Franculino Djú go to Saudi for £6.25m as he refused to sign a new contract, while star defender Daniil Roschin joined Dortmund on a free. The Djú deal barely moved finances into the black, as money was disappearing at an alarming rate without European competition. Mahtal paid £1m to keep striker Milan Kostic at the club then promoted wingers Ólavur Winther, August Damsgaard and Jesper Backs, who only became eligible on his 16th birthday in August, striker Nicolai Holvad, goalkeeper Habib Agrebi, midfielders Michael Høvenhoff and Allan Kirchheiner and full backs Albert Brendholdt-Pedersen and Kim Dideriksen.
That left Mahtal with an extremely youthful squad with an average age of just 20 but serious amounts of potential. Roschin’s departure saw Kim Fenger drop back into defence as Mahtal stuck with the 4-3-3 he’d adopted for Midtjylland’s relatively positive end to last season. The likes of Joachim Juul, Winther, Nielsen and Henrik Damsgaard all step up as starters in a pretty inexperienced lineup.
Mahtal’s Youngsters Start Brightly
The Danish media don’t fancy Midtjylland’s chances, predicting a 7th-place finish with title odds of 33/1. Champions København, who’ve won the last eight titles since Midtjylland won it in 2028, remain overwhelming 4/9 favourites followed Randers (6/1), AGF (15/1) and Brøndby (18/1).
Midtjylland again started with a rival clash against Silkeborg and goals by exciting midfielder Ovidiu Vlad and a penalty by right back Christoffer Nielsen edged a 2-1 victory. Juul and last season’s top scorer Martin Rasmussen secured the same scoreline at newly promoted Helsingør before Rasmussen’s brace downed OB 2-0 to send Midtjylland top of 3F Superliga for the first time in Mahtal’s time at the club.
Backs made his debut three days after his 16th birthday, surpassing Juul as the club’s youngest player, and created the opener for Rasmussen in a 3-0 win at Esbjerg. The good start ended with a 2-0 defeat at København, but Juul scored the only goal at home to AGF and Backs’ first senior goal earned 1-1 at AaB. The draw curse of last season hit again with three consecutive 0-0s against Nordsjaelland, Vejle and Randers before a slightly unlucky 1-0 loss at København, who only scored a suspiciously offside-looking goal from a free kick, to go four games without scoring.
A goal finally arrived as holding midfielder Valentinos Tasouindis’ first for the club in his 63rd match earned a win at home to Helsingør. H Damsgaard scored his first senior goal with the only goal in the Battle of Midtjylland Derby at Silkeborg before an impressive 2-0 win over OB moved them into 3rd place. Backs had been struggling a little of late, but that goal gave him confidence to put in a man-of-the-match performance in a 3-0 win at home to Esbjerg. But two more 0-0s at home to Brøndby and at AGF sent Midtjylland into the winter break sitting in an impressive 2nd place, only three points behind København who have a game in hand.
Can Anyone Challenge København?
Mahtal’s plans were curtailed by Saudi clubs meeting Fenger’s £11.75m release clause, which he refused to negotiate, and he moved to Juventus for a club record fee surpassing the £11.65m Palace paid for Sørloth in 2016. That forced Mahtal to fast-track 16-year-old Steffen Kirchheiner, no relation to Allan, who undoubtedly has bags of potential but is realistically not first-team ready, largely as he couldn’t find a replacement and a potentia loan deal got cancelled on deadline day.
S Kirchheiner made his debut in the first game of 2037 and inspired his side to a clean sheet as a Høvenhoff penalty edged AaB 1-0. At the same time, København lost at Esbjerg, which saw Midtjylland move level with them. They backed that up with a big 3-1 win at 3rd-place Nordsjaelland, courtesy of wingers Juul, Backs and Winther, and kept pace with København. However, the perennial champions had far too much for them on the final day of the regular season, ahead of which goalkeeper Viktor Guldager got injured and Agrebi was harshly forced into his league debut.
The Championship Group started much better than last season as Juul and Vlad strikes earned a 2-1 victory at OB before a staunch defensive effort gained a 0-0 at København. The same week, they drew 1-1 at home to Vejle then nicked a 2-1 win over Randers thanks to an own goal, which opened a six-point gap to 3rd and kept them just three points behind København.
However, they lost star defender Branko Music for eight weeks to a broken toe and Guldaker was sidelined again for two weeks with “flu.” Without them, a very inexperienced team lost 2-0 at Nordsjaelland to likely kill off any outside title hopes – only for København to go three games without a win and leave the gap at four points.
Game 1: OB (6th, home): The easiest game of Midtylland’s run-in saw them start with thee points as goals by Vlad, Rasmussen and Kostic’s late winner edged a 3-2 over OB. København battered Nordsjaelland 3-0 to maintain a four-point gap.
Game 2: Vejle (5th, away): Juul scored early on at Vejle but they created nothing else and were held to a 1-1. København scored an 85th-minute goal to win 1-0 at OB.
Game 3: København (1st, home): Three days later, victory for København would clinch the league and a draw would virtually guarantee it. København started the game brighter and took advantage, but Midtjylland grew into it and good play by Backs teed up Vlad’s equaliser just before half time. The visitors probably edged the chances but neither side created any more major chances. So they remained six points clear with two games to go.
Game 4: Randers (4th, away): København played before Midtjylland and drew to wrap up nine successive titles and 15 in the last 16 years. Then Mitjylland put in a poor performance to lose 2-1 and let Nordsjaelland back into the race for 2nd, but luckily they lost 3-2 at home to OB.
Game 5: Nordsjaelland (3rd, home): Midtjylland led their final-day opponents by three points and eight goals. Another disappointing display saw the sides for a 0-0, which confirmed 2nd place.
Midtjylland ended up finishing six points behind København and lost two fewer games than the champions. They finished on 57 points after 15 wins, 12 draws and a league-low five defeats. But it was clear where the issues lay, as they only scored a new club record low of 36 goals – which only the bottom two could boast a worse record than! – but conceded a league-low 23, which was impressive considering their best defender missed six matches.
Oddset Poaklen Run
Wins over Lyngby, Sønderjske and AaB had taken Midtjylland into the DBU Pokalen semi finals for the first time in this 13 year save. However, Mahtal had to rest his young starters for the first leg against Randers and they got thumped 4-1 and a fully rotated team lost 4-0 at home.
Heading In The Right Direction
It was clear that Midtjylland were making progress under Mahtal, but the lack of goals was a serious concern. Rasmussen led the way with a disappointing 15 in 36 followed by Juul (6), Backs and Kostic (5) and Vlad (4). Vlad was arguably their best performer, leading the way with 12 assists followed by Backs and Juul (6), who were the only two other players to get more than three assists. One concern was their supposed best player Magnus Hørby, who got one goal and three assists as the advanced playmaker, so Mahtal would consider the growing interest from Saudi.
Mahtal knew there were areas of the team he needed to address. However, he was happy with the progression of his young side, even if some of those who’d been thrown into the first team weren’t quite ready for it.
But could he improve Midtjylland’s attacking prowess next season? Or would he get offers from outside of Denmark? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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