Marked for Marcel Lainer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marcel Lainer damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Admira Wacker, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Guido Laimer 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Lainer
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Nov 2026
David Weimann had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Wolfsberger AC were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market9 Nov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mattersburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Mattersburg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Konstantinos Karetsas 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
David Weimann is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.34 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Lainer
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Nov 2026
Robert Bencun hands in a written request
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Konstantinos Karetsas provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Konstantinos Karetsas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Mattersburg, 2‑0 the final word against Sturm Graz in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Onisiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marcel Lainer damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Konstantinos Karetsas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Xaver Ulmer gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
David Weimann is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.26 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Onisiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.