Marked for David Lienhart
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Kraus 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch14 Sep 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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Michael Alaba dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Lienhart, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Stefan Fuchs leaves Mattersburg the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
There were 86 minutes on the clock and SV Ried had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Mattersburg did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Mattersburg have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dejan Kalajdzic 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Richard Kraus 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Gernot Schlager
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Mattersburg, 1‑0 the final word against SV Ried in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.92, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dejan Kalajdzic 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Heinrich Meyer again, and this time the name on the line is Heidenheim. Mattersburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Richard Kraus 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Rapid Wien left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejan Kalajdzic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.