Football Season Guide

Nordsjaelland missed out on a top 3 finish last season by a single point. It was the slow first half of the campaign that prevented the Tigers from qualifying for Europe. Focused on their European games in the autumn meant many fringe players started often in the Superliga. Nordsjaelland won’t have that issue this season as they are not in Europe. All their focus will be on the Superliga and a possibly a deep Danish Cup run. The Tigers had the joint-fewest defeats last season, only 6 in 32 Superliga games. They had the best defence – just 34 goals conceded in 32 matches. The main issue were the many draws. So far the summer had been one of turmoil with Nordsjaelland obviously in a rebuild mode. Only a week away from the new season they are yet to appoint a new permanent manager. Also, already 5 regular starters from last season left the club. The only notable new signing so far is veteran full-back Peter Ankersen, who’s likely to replace Martin Freese as a starter. It seems 2 of those 5 (Marcus Ingvartsen and Jeppe Tverskov) have been loaned back until the end of 2024. This means that the duo will be helping in the first part of the season. This also gives the Tigers more time to look for replacements. Nordsjaelland received large sums of money for some of their stars (for Ibrahim Osman alone they received just shy of 20 million euros) so there is a transfer fund to be spent. It seems the club prefer to first find their new head coach and only based on his desires to look for new players. This promises to make the first month or so of the season unsettling. However, if as expected at least 3-4 quality new players are added late in the summer Nordsjaelland could once again become a dark horse in the title race. Keeping the main core in defence looks a smart thing to do. The main rebuilt will have to be in midfield and attack. Right now the only reliable striker with good record is Benjamin Nygren. He’s injury-prone though so new signings in attack are to be expected soon. Already added the 18-year-old Ghanaian Levy Nene. He’s a centre forward of unknown qualities. It will be interesting to see if he could develop into a star in what will be his first season in Europe.