Hungarian Football League: The autumn season was all about Ferencváros

The Hungarian Football Association’s offical website said, as the OTB Bank league enjoys its winter break we can reflect on an autumn season which Ferencváros ended as runaway leaders, but on the other hand there are only three points between the clubs in second and seventh place. Reigning champions Videoton lie in third after a poor start to the season was followed by a superb recovery but they’ve still yet to draw even one game. Further down the table, Puskás Akadémia end the first half of the season in the relegation zone for the first time in their top-flight history.

Ferencváros (Position: 1st, points total: 49, points total at same stage last season: 37)

– Thomas Doll’s team showed they were the best in every way; most points scored, most wins, least defeats and least goals conceded.
– The green and whites’ defeat at the hands of MTK on 21st November brought to an end a long 34-match unbeaten run which bettered all but one in Fradi’s whole history, that of the 36-match run in 1931 and 1932 which included the 22-game winning streak which propelled them to the 1931-32 Hungarian title with a perfect record.
– Fradi’s defeat by Újpest in their final game of the autumn season destroyed their 100% win record at home this campaign and marked their first ever loss to Hungarian opposition in their new home the Groupama Aréna and their first home league defeat since 30th November 2013.
– Ferencváros lead the division by 18 points, a rare occurrence in Hungarian league history that one team leads the rest by a greater margin than ten points and one that becomes even rarer if it wastes away. The last such instance of this was in 2001-02 when MTK led Zalaegerszegi TE by 11 points but it was the latter who eventually lifted the league trophy that season.

Újpest FC (Position: 2nd, points total: 31, points total in 2014–2015 season after 19 rounds: 29)

– The lilac and whites have scored two more points than they had at the same stage last season. Last time round 29 points had only been enough for 7th place in the table.
– Nebojsa Vignjevics’ team showed two very different faces this season; during the first 11 rounds they went on a nine-match winless run but from the 12th round onwards they won seven and drew one, scoring 19 points in the process.
– The season’s most prolific foreign goalscorer is Újpest’s Mbaye Diagne who has scored 11 goals in 14 games. Even if we look at the all-time statistics, no Újpest player from abroad has ever scored 11 goals in one NBI season.
– Újpest have their ‘bogey teams’. Since 7th December 2014 they have lost nine league matches, twice each to Ferencváros, Diosgyőr, Paks and Videoton. The other loss came last season against Pécsi MFC who were not in NBI this time round…

Videoton FC (Position: 3, points total: 30, points total at same stage last season: 48)

– Last season Vidi were in top spot by the last round of the autumn season; this time, the last round was the first time they’d reached the podium places.
– The title holders were the only team to have three head coaches during the 19 rounds: Bernard Casoni, Tamás Pető and Ferenc Horváth. Of those three, Horváth was the most sucessful, winning 18 points over eight matches with a 75% win rate, the second best amongst all 15 top-tier coaches so far this season. Only Thomas Doll is ahead of him having won 49 points from a possible 57 with Ferencváros and a 85.96% win rate.
– Only Fradi won more matches than Vidi but only the two new promoted teams lost more than the team from Székesfehérvár. Since 21st March 2015 they have only drawn one league match (on 16th May). Noteworthy: Since 2nd December 2012 Vidi have only drawn three matches at home at the soon-to-be rebuilt Sóstói Stadium, the last being on 23rd ovember 2014.
– In their first ten games this season Vidi garnered only nine points; in the next nine matches they accrued a vastly improved 21 points.

Paksi FC (Position: 4th; points total: 30, points total at same stage last season: 31)

– Aurél Csertői’s team are one point worse off than after 19 matches last season.
Overall, one can say their performance has been steady but it is also important to state that only two points were garnered from their last three matches and this ruined the end of their half-season. Their 5-0 defeat by Ferencváros was their worst ever top-flight home defeat.
– In between the two defeats against Ferencváros, Paks went on a ten-match unbeaten run which included five straight victories.
– Since 20th March 2015 only Ferencváros have been able to take all three points away from matches in Paks.
– Fradi only conceded eight goals in autumn with Paks amongst the group of four teams with the next tightest defences having conceded only 19 goals.

MTK Budapest (Position: 5th; points total: 29; points total at same stage last season: 42)

– The blue and whites are far from their tally of last season at the same stage, mainly due to a poorer set of results away from home.
– They’ve played fewer home matches than any other team (7) but of these, they’ve won six, conceding only three goals in 630 minutes. Csaba László’s team will only travel to the countryside twice out of 14 scheduled matches in springtime.
– MTK only won two away matches in autumn; one against Vasas and one at Felcsút at the expense of hosts Puskás Akadémia. During the whole of 2015 MTK won only three away matches.
The blue and whites’ longest unbeaten run in autumn was five matches but bearing in mind their poor away record overall, it is a surprise that of these five matches, four were away from from home.

Szombathelyi-Swietelsky Haladás (Position: 6th; points total: 29, points total at same stage last season: 12)

– Haladás’ results have improved unbelievably since last season. Until March 8th 2015 last season, Haladás had only scored 12 points from 19 matches and were bottom of the 16-team NBI table with a goal ratio of 10 scored against 27 conceded. Now, that record is 17 goals scored, 19 conceded and one of the frontrunners for Hungarian Player of the Year is their goalkeeper Gábor Király.
– Between 25th July and 31st October Haladás won six out of 13 league matches by a scoreline of 1-0.
– Géza Mészöly’s team actually had a better away record than at home. With just six goals conceded away from home, their away defensive record is only bettered by leaders Ferencváros.
– Haladás’ first seven games were their most productive, securing them 14 points. The next six fixtures yielded seven points and their final set of six games saw a return of eight points.

Debreceni VSC-TEVA (Position: 7th; points total: 28, points total at same stage last season: 35)

– Not once in recent years have Loki entered the winter break while positioned in the lower half of the league table. From this point of view the team’s performance was disappointing but it is only proper to add that only three points separate Debrecen from second-placed Újpest. It’s a fact though, that last season they had seven points more after 19 matches than they have now and that’s quite a difference.
– DVSC’s home record has been exemplary in recent years but it’s not now. They haven’t even won half of their home fixtures; only four out of ten, as opposed to last season when they won two-thirds, 11 from 15 in 2013/14 and 12 from 15 in the undefeated championship-winning season of 2012/13.
– Elemér Kondás’ team’s worst period was in August when they won one and lost three of their four games. In the middle of the season they went eight unbeaten. Surprisingly, only once did they manage to win two matches in a row.
– During the period of European football for the Hungarian clubs Debrecen also posted their biggest league win of the season, a 7-0 home win against Békéscsaba.

Budapest Honvéd (Position: 8th, points total: 24. points total at same stage last season: 13)

– Amongst the Honvéd fans this is also too low a total but compared to last season the team’s performance this autumn has been totally positive with the obvious evidence being their eleven-point improvement after 19 games this time.
– The team from Kispest suffered only one defeat in the first seven rounds, that one coming against Paks. Subsequent to that though, they only secured one point in five matches from the start of October onwards.
– In 2015, only opponents from the capital city were able to take all three points away from their matches at the Bozsik Stadium; in spring it was MTK, in autumn it was Újpest and Vasas.
– Their pattern of form of form last spring continued into autumn; if Honvéd scored at least two goals as the away team, they would win the match. In April they won 3-1 in Szombathely, while in autumn they dispatched Békéscsaba 4-1 away and Puskás Akadémia 3-1 in Felcsút.

Diógyőri VTK (Position: 9th; points total: 20; points total at same stage last season: 33)

– DVTK are from their achievements of last season in terms of points with the gap from last season standing at 13 points fewer after 19 matches. It must be said the squad strength last season was quite a lot better last year too.
– Diosgyőri won five matches this season under Balázs Bekő’s guidance but only one of them, against Békéscsaba, was by at least a two-goal margin.
– The outcomes of no other team’s matches changed as much in added time at the end of games as those of Diosgyőr’s.
– Since 19th September DVTK have only won one out of nine league fixtures their final home fixture against Békéscsaba. Altogether, the red-and-whites have collected three-quarters of their overall points tally at home.

Vasas SC (Position: 10th, points total: 16, points total at same stage last season: N/A – in NBII)

– One of the top-flight’s two promoted teams, Vasas have spent much of the second half of the autumn season in the relegation places and only avoided being in the drop zone thanks to a better head-to-head record than Puskás Akadémia.
– Vasas’ highest position this season was eighth after the fifth round of fixtures.
– Until the start of December Vasas had only beaten Videoton at home but they then won their following two home matches to improve their record as hosts at Fáy utca.
– As the away team, Vasas garnered seven points in just four matches between 8th August and 26th September.
– Vasas played 12 matches under Károly Szanyó’s management and won 10 points. Antal Simon was the coach for their last seven matches from which a further six points were gained.

Puskás Akadémia (Position: 11th, points total 16, points total at same stage last season: 24)

– The third top-flight season for the Scythemen hasn’t met their expectations with the club leadership hoping for a place in the top third of the league by the end of the autumn season. In 2013-14 they had 20 points by this stage and at the same point last season they had 24. Now, they have 16.
– Although the club now lies in the relegation zone, they only failed to score in four matches in the autumn. In this respect only Ferencváros have a better record (3) with Újpest and also, surprisingly, Diósgyőr.
– After 1st August, Robert Jarni’s team were only successful in beating one team, Vasas, but took three points from them twice.
– The team won ten points at home in the Pancho Aréna and six points on their travels. In ten matches away from home they scored at least two goals on five separate occasions but only in that match against Vasas in the Illovszky Stadion could they emerge with a victory.

Békéscsaba 1912 Előre (Position: 12th, points total: 12, points total at this stage last season: N/A – in NBII)

– The only time the second promoted team in this division were out of the relegation zone was after the very first round of fixtures, even though then they had still suffered defeat. Whereas Ferencváros lead the table of key performance indicators, Békéscsaba prop up the table. They’ve posted the joint-least amount of victories, suffered the joint-most amount of defeats, scored the least amount of goals and conceded the most.
– At home they’ve gathered eight points but away only four – both are records in this season’s league.
– Of their three wins, two have come at the expense of Puskás Akadémia with the other coming against Videoton.
– Only in two home matches did Békéscsaba fail to score – against Vasas and Haladás. Twice, against Debrecen and Paks, they led by two goals but even this was not enough to gain even a point and in both cases they conceded goals in second-half added time. If we count matches as if they had lasted only 75 minutes, Békéscsaba would be a stable mid-table team, but in more than a third of their games they conceded in the last 15 minutes and only once on these occasions did they still emerge with any points.

Photo: MTI

Source: mlsz.hu