Football Season Guide

Strømsgodset defied the expectations last campaign and actually had quite an enjoyable season in mid-table, without ever really feeling the pressure of relegation and playing some carefree attacking football at times. They were never really close to pushing to the top six but were always quite complete as a unit and certainly more than a sum of their parts, a testament to the work of Bjorn Petter Ingebrigtsen. The experienced coach will be looking to emulate that with the Drammen side this season but whether he can be successful in that is very much open to debate. As usual, Godset were once again one of the least active teams in the market and have basically not strengthened at all. They also did keep their prized asset, Johan Hove, and it is very much a case of running it back with the same group of players. That said, the return of Lars Jorgan Salvesen after a year out with a knee injury is certainly a bit of a wildcard as he was a pretty effective striker at this level pre-injury and a combination of him and Fred Friday gives the team one of the more formidable attacking duos in the league. Hove is expected to again be the heartbeat in midfield while Tobias Guliksen will look to build on a breakthrough last season on the wing. At the back, Gustav Valsvil and Nicklas Gunnarsson provide experience and solidity. This combination looks pretty decent as a whole and should be enough to give Godset enough of a wiggle room in the battle to stay up. Any expectations of finishing higher than that are very much fanciful, though.