Goals keep pouring in, spectator interest is rising and new talent is being produced at a steady pace. Danish club football seems healthier than ever yet there is only one team left in UEFA club competitions.
Danish national coach Morten Olsen must not know whether to laugh or cry. The former RSC Anderlecht sweeper spends a great deal of his time checking out the action in the Danish Superliga and he must have been pleased with what he has seen so far this season.
After 12 rounds of play there has only been one goalless match in the Superliga which is a new European league record. The league is also evenly poised, while attendance figures reveal that 34 per cent more people have been through the gates during the first third of this season compared with the last. Olsen must also be pleased that new young performers like Aalborg BK's Michael Silberbauer, FC København's Martin Albrechtsen and FC Midtjylland goalkeeper Peter Skov-Jensen have shown so much potential that the Danish national team look set to continue their positive run of results for a long while yet. Those are the positive signs.
Negative trends
However, these successes have not translated into success at European club level. No Danish sides qualified for the UEFA Champions League and as the UEFA Cup heads into the second round only one side, Midtjylland, remains in the competition. This confirms a trend of the last three years that has seen Denmark drop from 12th spot in UEFA's overall rankings to a disappointing 24th behind Norway, Sweden, Croatia, Poland and Bulgaria among others.
According to Olsen this trend is indirectly linked to the Danish mentality. "Danish players are by tradition a bit spoiled," he said. "There's no doubt that all clubs have made tremendous improvements in terms of physical strength and the pace of the game but many players struggle to maintain the same tactical discipline as in Norway and Sweden and therefore it's no surprise that Brøndby [IF] were beaten by Rosenborg [BK] and København went out against Djurgårdens [IF]."
AGF Århus coach Poul Hansen fully agrees with Olsen and points out that Danish players generally live too comfortable an existence in their home country. "An average player in the Superliga can easily be a millionaire," he said. "This makes the players lazy and generally they lack the encouragement to go flat out during training. Our sides also lack experience of playing in Europe. But how can you gain any experience if you always struggle to make it past the first round?"
Hansen also feels that too many coaches hide behind bad excuses when they suffer defeats. "So many coaches relate their defeats to personal mistakes made by the players," he said. "But if this truly is the case then they should spend their energy trying to help the players refrain from repeating these mistakes instead of using it as an excuse."
Attached is the coach and assistant!
Danish Problem? 
