Danish Super Ligaen: The chase for the title and the relegation battle

The title race in Denmark is as open as the relegation battle is. The top three teams Brondby, FC Kobenhavn and OB are all fighting for the title, while in the bottom we find Horsens, Vejle, Esbjerg and Sønderjyske who are trying to avoid the big disappointment of getting relegated.

At both ends I think it’s easy to exclude one of the mention teams. In the top half I’m pretty sure it won’t be OB who will take home the title as they aren’t strong enough over a whole season. They pretty much showed that this season, a good example is that they have lost the same amount of times as Brøndby and FCK have together. That won’t win you titles.

In the bottom we have Horsens, Vejle, Esbjerg and Sønderjyske. Again here I would be HUGELY surprised if Esbjerg were to fight for relegation when the season ends. They will, after the winter break,  get old manager Ove Pedersen back after he guided AGF from 1 division to now a successful 5th place. And if there is a man who knows Esbjerg its Ove Pedersen, he has been there for a long period before, so he knows the club in and out. Esbjerg furthermore,  have a much stronger squad then the three mention teams before.

That leaves us down to Horsens, Vejle and Sønderjyske. The table so far is showing that Horsens are in the worst position with only eleven points after the first seventeen games. Vejle have collected twelve while Sønderjyske have taken fifteen points.
 
Let’s have a little look of all three teams
 
Horsens



Horsens have in my opinion the best squad out of these three teams. But they surely haven’t proven that so far. That could be for  many reasons. The main and the key factor is most likely because manager Kent Nielsen who has taken Horsens so far and been praised so many times in the media because of his good work and big knowledge football wise, is going to Brøndby to take over after the break. And no matter how you twist and turn this, it’s something that will affect the players and the staff around the club. And that is maybe the key reason for Horsens bad position.

They "had" a great manager in Kent Nielsen who especially defensively is a mastermind. In the goal they have Søren Jochumsen who has lots of experience. In defence they have proven players such as Mads Rieper, Morten Rasmussen and Joseph Elanga. Midfield have players such as Niels Lodberg, Martin Spelmann, Simon Nagel and Allan Søgaard. In attack Horsens have two great strikers in Gilberton Macena and Rawez Lawan. These two players almost have telepathic understanding of each other. So far this season they haven’t proven it that much like earlier, but it’s hard to play good in a team who aren’t fully committed.

That’s something new manager and old Brøndby coach Henrik Jensen will have to rebuild.
It’s easy to see that Horsens have a big task in front of them to stay clear of relegation. And it surely won’t be easy, but Horsens have the squad and the mentality to do it. It should help that after the break they have three home games out of the first four.

The board have already said that they will look for signings in the new year. So the future might look a little brighter for them despite the bad position at the moment.

 
Vejle



Vejle, yes what to say about them. They are one of Denmark’s "big old clubs" with a huge tradition. The club itself have produced a lot of great players for Denmark, Thomas Gravesen is a great example here. Vejle are along with Sønderjyske the promoted teams to the Superliga. As in other leagues, the promoted teams pretty much always find it hard to cope with the tempo etc etc and this has been no different for Vejle.

They have taken twelve points from the first seventeen games. They have only one win in eight home games and have only managed to score twelve times the whole season. So it’s no wonder that Vejle are in the position as they are in.
Taking a look at the club will tell you that Vejle are lacking quality in some departments, but not in goal were they have old AAB keeper Jimmy Nielsen. He is a great keeper and has always been. He’s proven that at Vejle also.
The defence is decent without being great. Old Danish international player Brian Priske along with Bora Zivkovic and Sladan Peric are the key players here.

In midfield, Vejle have put their trust in Brian Nielsen and that’s understandable as he is a great player, but he is also a player who’s on the transfer list because of some stupid things he has done. So it’s questionable if he is at the club when the season starts up again, I don’t think he is.

Vejle big problem is scoring goals, like I mentioned. They have only scored twelve times so far and only four out of those twelve goals is from their strikers. Not good enough at all. They are without a doubt lacking that natural goal scorer. They thought they had found him when they signed Wassim El Banna but that was a miss. Also Brazilian Eduardo Delani has been a disappointment so far.

Vejle are in a dog fight to avoid relegation. They lack quality in every part of the pitch (keeper not included) and if they don’t go out and find that in the transfer window it could be a goodbye to the Superliga and a hello to 1. Division.
Hopefully for Vejle, Ove Christensen, if he isn’t fired will have some money to spend.


Sønderjyske



Sønderjyske have been called the worst team in the Danish Superliga for over ten years. Big and strong words against a team. Has this affected the Sønderjyske team in a positive way and are the words true about them?
Well I’m not sure if they are the worst team in the Superliga over the past ten years. But I can without a doubt say, they are among them. To be harsh but far, they only have one good player at this level and he will without a doubt not play in Sønderjyske anymore when the season starts again. The talk and the fuzz is about Ken Ilsø. What a player he is, he can run all night, dribble, shoot and score goals. And without him Sønderjyske wouldn’t have fifteen points, maybe only the half of that.

In goal Sønderjyske have old Silkeborg keeper Henrik Ipsen. He’s a decent goalie, but has now turned 35 and the career will soon be over. The reserves are young and inexperienced so it will be tough when he retires.
Defence is without any strong players, strong in Superliga wise that is. Pretty much all of them are players who hasn’t played at this level before and that has been showed several times before this season.

Midfield is no different but maybe a little stronger. Most of the midfielders are young and haven’t tried much in their career at this level.

The strikers are no good either, Tim Ilsø not included. Most of them are like the rest of the squad, young and inexperienced.

It also shows a lot that a player like Tim Ilsø has scored six out of the fourteen goals Sønderjyske have scored this season. And like I mentioned before, he WONT be at Sønderjyske when the season starts again, both him and the club have confirmed that.

Sønderjyske of course have a little advantage of Vejle and Horsens, because of the simple fact that they have fifteen points so far and therefore are ahead of them. But Vejle and Horsens have better squads then Sønderjyske and better managers as well.

Sønderjyske will without a have to fight their Butts off to avoid relegation, especially after Tim Ilsø will leave the club. Will Sønderjyske succeed in this? In don’t think so. There are too many question marks and not enough quality in the squad to avoid  relegation.

Danish SAS-Ligaen Table as of 7th December 08

			| Home					| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Brondby	17	7	0	1	16	9	5	3	1	14	4	17	39
2	FC Copenhagen	17	8	1	0	21	5	3	3	2	11	7	20	37
3	Odense BK	17	6	1	2	17	8	5	1	2	15	10	14	35
4	FC Midtjylland	17	7	1	1	18	7	2	3	3	8	12	7	31
5	AaB Aalborg	17	2	3	4	9	13	4	2	2	14	12	-2	23
6	AGF Aarhus	16	6	1	1	13	9	1	1	6	7	13	-2	23
7	Randers FC	17	2	5	2	13	12	2	4	2	14	10	5	21
8	FC Nordsjaelland	16	2	2	3	8	11	2	1	6	11	16	-8	15
9	Sonderjyske	17	1	4	3	8	17	2	2	5	6	12	-15	15
10	Esbjerg	17	2	3	3	6	7	0	4	5	9	16	-8	13
11	Vejle	17	1	3	4	7	15	1	3	5	5	12	-15	12
12	AC Horsens	17	1	4	4	7	11	1	1	6	10	19	-13	11

Sønderjyske to be relegated to 1st Division can be found at Bet365 to odds @ 1,60 and that’s value. Sønderjyske in my mind have about 70% to get relegated and it’s therefore a HUGE value bet.

Wolfman