Start vs Molde Preview: Can a Winless Start Side Find Their First Points Against an Inconsistent Molde?

Last updated 17 April 2026. Two days out from Sunday's Eliteserien fixture and the picture is getting clearer. Start host Molde and the numbers do not lie. Zero wins. Seven goals conceded. Three scored. That is a defence that cannot defend and an attack that cannot score enough to compensate. End of.

Where Start Are Right Now

Sixteenth in the table. No wins recorded. Three goals scored, seven conceded. The thing is, those numbers tell you everything about a side that is not competing at the level this division demands. You do not give up seven goals in your opening matches through bad luck. You give them up through a lack of basics, poor organisation, and an attitude problem somewhere in that backline.

Listen, I am not here to bury Start for the sake of it. But accountability matters. Someone in that dressing room needs to look at a seven-goal tally against and ask themselves some hard questions. Their home crowd deserves better than what they have been served so far this season.

The standards are not there yet. That is the blunt truth. Whether they can raise them on Sunday against a Molde side carrying their own issues is the only question worth asking.

Molde: Better But Not Convincing

Sixth in the table. Seven goals scored, six conceded. To be fair, that is genuinely balanced in the worst possible way for a side with Molde's resources and reputation. They are scoring. They are also leaking goals. That is not the profile of a team ready to dominate the bottom half.

The thing is, seven goals scored sounds impressive until you put six conceded next to it. That is a side with desire going forward and questions at the back. For a team sitting sixth, you would want cleaner sheets. You would want a defence that competes for the full ninety minutes, not one that switches off.

They travel to a desperate home side on Sunday. Molde need to bring their defensive attitude with them or this will not be the comfortable away day their position suggests it should be.

The Key Battleground

This match comes down to one simple thing. Can Start defend? They have shown nothing to suggest they can. Seven goals conceded from their opening fixtures is a damning return. Molde, for all their inconsistency at the back, will fancy their chances of picking that defence apart.

Start's only route back into this season runs through performances like Sunday. They need a result here. A home crowd, a clear motivation, and an opponent that is not exactly setting the world alight themselves. If they cannot compete in this fixture, the questions about their season become very serious very quickly.

Molde's attack has been productive. Three goals scored by Start tells you the hosts can cause problems too. This might not be the cagey, tight affair some expect. Both sides have shown they can score. Both sides have shown they can be scored against. That combination tends to produce goals.

Connor's Betting Take

I hate accumulators. I back one thing and I back it hard. Here is mine for Sunday.

Both teams to score. Start have scored three despite their struggles. Molde have conceded six. Start's defence has not kept a clean sheet. Molde's attack will not be silenced here. The numbers point one way and my eyes confirm it. Both defences have been poor. Both attacks have shown they can find the net.

You do not need a laptop to see what the data sheet is showing you. Two sides that cannot defend, one of them desperate for a result at home. Goals are coming in this match. Both teams to score is the play. Near-final odds have this sitting at a reasonable price given how open both sides have been.

Listen, if Start somehow keep a clean sheet, I will tip my hat to a defence that has given me zero reason to believe in them. But I am not betting on miracles. I am betting on what I have seen. End of.

What Needs to Happen for Start to Win

They need to be organised first. Basics. Shape, communication, desire to win the second ball. They have been too easy to score against and that cannot continue if they want any points from this fixture.

Going forward they have shown they can create. Three goals from their opening matches is not a disaster in front of goal. The problem is they keep handing the initiative back to opposition sides by defending badly. If they tighten up for even sixty or seventy minutes on Sunday, they give themselves a chance.

Accountability in the defensive unit is the starting point. Without it, Molde will punish them.

What Needs to Happen for Molde to Win

Bring the same attitude they show going forward to their defending. Six goals conceded is sloppy for a side with their expectations this season. Away from home against a desperate Start, they cannot afford to be open at the back.

The thing is, if Molde defend even adequately and let their attack do what it has been doing, they win this match. That is not a complicated equation. Their problem is they have not defended adequately. Sunday is the test of whether that changes.

Final Word

Start are in a hole. Molde are inconsistent enough that this is not a foregone conclusion. But the numbers favour the visitors and so does the form. Start need a performance that shows they understand what is at stake this season. Anything less is unacceptable given where they sit in that table.

Sunday 19 April. Eliteserien. A bottom-half side that cannot defend against a top-half side that keeps conceding anyway. Both teams to score. Back it, watch it, and hold whoever is responsible for those defensive displays to account when the goals go in.