Marked for Markus Wober
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Mattersburg's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mattersburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Mattersburg
Position 10 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match25 Nov 2026
1‑5 against Red Bull Salzburg, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
It finished 1-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marcel Alaba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Dejan Ulmer did the work nobody counts — 6.82
14 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Lazaro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Wober
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Mattersburg's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mattersburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Nov 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marcel Alaba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Lazaro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Samy Kehli
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mattersburg, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Match14 Nov 2026
It needed Gernot Schlager to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Admira Wacker, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Chances created: 4. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
Mattersburg throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Grodig the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Mattersburg will enjoy reviewing.
Market12 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match10 Oct 2026
8 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marcel Alaba in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 4‑4, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
2‑5 against Admira Wacker, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mattersburg and Admira Wacker in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Andreas Lazaro falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match12 Sep 2026
Mattersburg are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Philipp Pomer
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Sep 2026
Mattersburg are in real trouble now
Position 8, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Lazaro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Stefan Trimmel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Wober
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mattersburg, another week without a signature from Philipp Pomer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sebastian Baumgartner is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Lazaro signs something — a contract at Mattersburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.