Football Season Guide

IFK Norrkoping

In


Alexander Fransson (mid) - FC Basel, Christoffer Nyman (att) - Eintracht Braunschweig, Kasper Larsen (def) - FC Groningen, Sead Haksabanovic (mid) - West Ham (loan),

Out


Arnór Sigurdsson (att) - CSKA Moscow, David Moberg Karlsson (mid) - Sparta Prague, Jon Gudni Fjóluson (def) - Krasnodar, Linus Wahlqvist (def) - Dynamo Dresden, Eric Smith (mid) - KAA Gent,

If you had told Jens Gustafsson before the 2018 Allsvenskan season that his Norrkoping's side would be finishing seven points ahead of Malmo, he would've been rubbing his hands together ready to accept the championship trophy. But unfortunately his side only managed to finish as runners up with AIK leading the way losing just the one game last season - which was against Norrkoping. They got 65 points from their 30 games, and would in any other season surely be crowned as champions. But they will have to go again this season and hope to both topple AIK off their perch as well as making sure they can keep Malmo behind them for a second consecutive season. Both of those challenges are going to be extremely tough. The Norrkoping squad looks like one of the strongest in the league, there's no doubt about that. There's strength in depth as well as exciting and committed players that would walk into any starting eleven in all of the league's 16 sides. There hasn't been wholesale changes to the team who finished second last season, but some fine tuning as been taking place. The most exciting of those might well be winger Sead Haksabanovic who is just the sort of live wire and match winner that Gustafsson's team need when the chips are down.

Target


It will be hard for Norrkoping to better the 2018 campaign, but they should be quietly confident of at least going close to 65 points again with the team that they have. And should AIK or Malmo falter again in terms of form, then Gustafsson's side will surely be there to pounce. They just need to stay focused and show the same commitment they did last time around, when they were two agonising points away from the league title. They might not have the chance to be so close to glory again for some time though. Prediction: 3rd