Rasmussen thrives at Midtjylland

FC Midtjylland coach Erik Rasmussen is earning a reputation as one of the best managers in Denmark with his team keeping pace with the top Superliga sides.

Considerable credit
A 1-0 weekend defeat at second-placed Aalborg BK took a little gloss off Midtjylland's fine start to the campaign, but Rasmussen and his assistant Thomas Thomasberg can take considerable credit for the fine form so far this term. Now third in the table, four points adrift of joint-leaders FC København and AaB, Midjylland are doing superbly, especially considering captain and star central defender Kristian Bak Nielsen left for Dutch side SC Heerenveen in the summer.

'Ups and downs'
"There have been ups and downs," Rasmussen told uefa.com. "We made a slightly slow start but then things really got going for us until our confidence suffered a severe blow in the UEFA Cup [first-round defeat] against [FC] Lokomotiv Moskva. We should have been 4-0 or 5-0 up after 60 minutes of the first leg, but instead we ended up losing 3-1 and then went out of the tournament. That started a run of weak performances but I think we are back where we should be."

Competitive side
Midtjylland have made no secret of their ambition to win the Danish title by 2011 and while they are up against strong competition this season, Rasmussen is pleased to see his side holding their own. "We have drawn twice against FCK this season already - 0-0 away and 2-2 at home - and both matches showed that we are capable of matching them," said Rasmussen. However, he added that "FCK are still huge favourites to take the title again".

Rasmussen confident
The club finished second in the league last season, albeit 13 points adrift of champions København, and will hope to run them a lot closer this term - provided they do not lose too many more star players. "Given the talented players we have, there will always be interest from other clubs," Rasmussen conceded. "It is not impossible that the likes of Simon Poulsen, Ajgun Salami of Oluwafemi Ajilore might get offers, but I have such faith in our squad that I believe we can cope with losing one of our stars."