The fire score was halved during Ingebrigtsen – the crisis continued against Mjøndalen – VG

A wise free kick finished by Martin Rønning Ovenstad (26) and a well-placed shot by rookie Isaac Twum (22) secured Mjøndalen a long-awaited 2-0 win over Brann at Consto Arena on Saturday night.

Mjøndalen had not won since the triumph in Bergen on 16 August and are the lowest scoring team in the Eliteserien, but against the weak men of Kåre Ingebrigtsen, the home side appeared with confidence and quality and triumphed again.

Following Nilsen’s sacking, Brann was going to advance the table with Ingebrigtsen as boss, but during Trøndelag’s eight-match lead, the team has only won one match. Two settlements ended in a tie, while five were lost. Brann has scored five of the 24 points with his new coach.

Danger of descent

Points per game average says Brann has done twice as badly with Ingebrigtsen as he has done with Nilsen. During the latter, the Bergen team took 1.25 points per game, while only averaging 0.63 with Ingebrigtsen as coach.

– The fact that we don’t score goals means that we have to simplify things. Now it’s getting a little fuzzy. Without my using it as an excuse, we have to change a lot of equipment at the moment so we have not recorded anything. I really have to familiarize myself and simplify things for the children so that it is easier for them to understand what we want, Ingebrigtsen tells VG.

– There are only six points until Mjøndalen below the line. What do you think of the danger of descent here?

– If we don’t score goals, we go down. We have to get into the rings and have people on the field who want to score goals. It has been a problem for us for quite some time. We have created well with scoring chances, but we are not tough enough and we are not willing to sacrifice enough. Perhaps as a coach I have not been clear enough for the players to understand how we want it.

Fear of fire

The victory means that Mjøndalen, who is second at the bottom of the table, advances to 17 points. Brann has just six more points, which says the last nine rounds will likely be about surviving for the red jerseys.

Against Mjøndalen, Fredrik Haugen, Amer Ordagic, Vegard Forren and Daniel Pedersen were absent for various reasons. This helped players like Ole Didrik Holmberg and Mathias Rasmussen to make their debut early on, while newcomer Sander Svendsen came in after the break.

However, none of Brann’s new players were able to help Brann. Instead, the team seemed disorganized, with no clear pattern of interaction and more like 11 individual players put together, rather than a well-functioning collective.

– I live an even soccer game. We have a lot of the ball and we are good at 16 meters. Mjøndalen is relatively efficient. They score on a set piece and an offside goal, while we fight to score. We have been doing it for a while. It’s really disappointing that we didn’t score goals, says Ingebrigtsen.

The manager told VG in August that the ambition is to take the gold with Brann next year. Currently, the crew is far from that level.

– What is missing most are the people who want to enter the area and score goals. We have a lot of offensive people, but very few people hitting the box. We have to get into the box with five or six pieces. We are at rest. I think we’ll go home and simplify things a bit. We don’t need to have the ball that much. We must be much more direct than we are today.

MIF-fest

Thus, Brann remains in eleventh place in the table, with the abyss of the elite series not far behind.

For Mjøndalen, Saturday was completely different: Vegard Hansen’s team appeared as a solid unit, starving at three points. And that’s exactly what the brown jerseys got.

– It’s very delicious. For that we have been working. We almost had to win today. We were four points behind Start. Getting that hatch closed was probably absolutely crucial, MIF coach Vegard Hansen tells VG.

He believes that the new acquisitions Twum and Ole Amund Sveen have added a lot of quality to the team.

– We have been more solid the last three games. We have received two very good reinforcements. Both Isaac and Sveen have given us a lot, a lot. We have seen trends. Today we are solid throughout the game.

– How do you assess the possibility of conserving the place now?

– This helped a lot. We have our own table here (in the closet), with us heading to Start. We are now one point behind them. We do everything possible to get a qualifying spot. If we succeed, it will surely be a close match against a good Obos team. We have nine games left. If we find the pace ahead, we have a good schedule, while Start has tough games in the coming months.

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