Football Season Guide

Mjøndalen

In


Lars Olden Larsen (sp) (mid) - KFUM Oslo, Magnus Bækken (sp) (att) - Hallingdal, Kristoffer Nesse Stephensen (sp) (mid) - Øygarden, Markus Nakkim (r) (def) - Vålerenga

Out


Jibril Bojang (sp) (att) - FC Masr, Olivier Occéan (r) (att) - Urædd Pontus Silfwer (sp) (att) - GIF Sundsvall, Julian Faye Lund (r) (gk) - Rosenborg, Jacob Bergström (sp) (att) - Mjällby

Mjondalen had to wait until the very final whistle of the 2019 season to see if their efforts would be enough for another campaign in the top flight. And it was, by the skin of their teeth. A narrow 1-0 win over Valerenga kept them up on goal difference and Vegard Hansen could breathe a huge sigh of relief. They weren't expected to stay up to be fair, and having finished above Lillestrom and Tromso is a huge achievement for a club of their stature. And it was a standard Mjondalen season, with topsy turvy results all the way through. 30 points from 30 games was enough in the end. But only just. There has been very little in terms of signings and new players, but Hansen has also been able to keep most of the squad that served him so well last season together. Pre-season friendly results have been very lacklustre, but these have been challenging times for football everywhere so it's hard to read too much into such results. The question is whether Mjondalen have enough in the tank to keep themselves ahead of another three teams this season? It's hard to see who those three teams would be to be honest, as newly promoted Aalesund look like they have a winning mentality installed, and Sandefjord and Start will both be looking for revenge after poor campaigns in the top flight two years' ago. If Mjondalen can match those two at the very least, they could reach the relegation play off place. And Hansen would be the first to admit that he'd take that all day long before what looks to be another challenging season ahead.

Target


Mjondalen will be competitive but they lack the quality to trouble a majority of the Eliteserien sides. If they have the hunger for another relegation scrap, they have every chance of staying up. But there are big questions over just how well equipped they are this time around. Prediciton: 15th