Marked for Philipp Grillitsch
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Julian Ilsanker takes the afternoon — 8.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julian Ilsanker provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marco Lienhart 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Tilio 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Mattersburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sturm Graz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Leon Jäger
“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
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 55. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
8 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.
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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marco Lienhart 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Julian Ilsanker 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Marcel Lazaro
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market14 Sep 2026
Marco Lienhart wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mattersburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Mattersburg
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mattersburg are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Dominik Schlager did the work nobody counts — 6.76
14 combined actions and 6.76. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Julian Ilsanker 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Peter Haring 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.