Brøndby coach wants to keep the ghosts of the past away from his players

Thomas Nørgaard wants Brøndby to focus on the 13 points it collected from its opening seven Superliga matches, rather than retreat into what he calls the club's ghosts of the past.

Brøndby began the season promisingly, taking 13 points from its first five games. But after a clear 3-1 defeat away to FC Nordsjælland in Farum, the team produced its poorest performance of the season on Sunday, losing 3-0 to Randers at Brøndby Stadium.

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There are some ghosts here at the stadium, because the team lost a lot at one point, and when you then lose a few matches, you can immediately jump back into that story.

The defeat hurt, Nørgaard admitted, and naturally prompted questions. Yet he said the team must not immediately return to the old narrative that has sometimes made it tense in front of its demanding home crowd.

“There are some ghosts here at the stadium, because the team lost a lot at one point, and when you then lose a few matches, you can immediately jump back into that story,” Nørgaard told Viaplay. “My most important task right now is to remind the players that after seven matches we have 13 points, which is almost two per game. So something has been good enough to produce a reasonable and acceptable return.”

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My most important task right now is to remind the players that after seven matches we have 13 points, which is almost two per game. So something has been good enough to produce a reasonable and acceptable return.

Nørgaard did not hide his dissatisfaction with the Randers performance. He pointed to major gaps in the defense, which Randers exploited clinically, while the matches against Nordsjælland and Randers also raised concerns at the other end. Brøndby changed several starters and substituted all three attacking players because the coaching staff felt the team was not dangerous enough.

Mads Frøkjær-Jensen missed Brøndby's biggest chance when the score was 0-1. “We were simply not sharp in the penalty areas. It was incredible. You can have as much possession as you like and play the ball around, but we did not create enough. It is simply poor,” he told Viaplay.

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We were simply not sharp in the penalty areas. It was incredible. You can have as much possession as you like and play the ball around, but we did not create enough. It is simply poor.