Danish arrival centre stage

Danish arrival eager to step out of ‘shadows’ and shine

RASMUS NICOLAISEN insists he has been fed up living in the ‘shadows’.

Now he’s targeting the unlikely switch to Pompey to yield regular first-team football and boost his career.

The 23-year-old has yet to feature for FC Midtjylland this season, instead serving the Danish champions from the bench.

A centre-half pairing of Denmark international Erik Sviachanko and Alexander Scholtz have barred Nicolaisen’s route into the first-team – and also act as captain and vice-captain.

Regardless, he has still made 51 appearances and scored six goals during his time at FC Midtjylland, while also featured in the Europa

League. Now the left-sided centre-half has moved to Fratton Park on a seasonlong loan.

And he is convinced Pompey can provide the platform to finally savour regular match action he has been hungry for over the past season.

He told The News : ‘At Midtjylland I was on the bench most of the time. I want to play every week, that is my ambition at Portsmouth.

‘At my age, I need to play regular football.

‘It’s a very good opportunity to come here and keep developing. I’m looking forward to hopefully playing a lot of games.

‘The two central defenders in front of me at Midtjylland are doing very, very well – and that’s my problem.

‘They are older than me and have a lot of experience, also experience of playing outside Denmark.

‘One is captain and the other is vice-captain, so I have been in the shadows behind them.

‘Also, one of them received player of the year and the other was right behind him. It has been very, very frustrating, but that’s how it is sometimes.

‘I haven’t played much, maybe 15 games for the whole of last season, I was usually a substitute.

‘But now I’m here and looking forward to getting onto the pitch and showing my skills.

‘This is a club with big ambitions, they want to go into the Championship, so I will do all I can to help them with that – and, of course, I want to play a lot of games and show everyone.’

Nicolaisen sampled Pompey training for the first time yesterday morning.

However, with the firstteam granted a day off, he instead worked with coach Jake Wigley and several other players.

The defender will link up with Kenny Jackett’s squad properly today as they prepare for Saturday’s visit of Wigan.

And Nicolaisen is eager to be thrown straight into the action having signed in plenty of time to be available when the Latics visit this weekend.

He added: ‘The season started in the middle of September, but we have been playing qualification games for the Champions League since the middle of August.

‘I’ve not played at all this season, though, only some friendly games, but feel okay.

‘After a year without many games, you need to get continuity and that good feeling again, but I don’t think it will take a long time for me.’