Gameweek 21 review
First off I’d like to give a big shout out to the top three managers in the FFS Allsvenskan-league with new leader Henrik Mäkitalo and his team “Big Mäk & Co” steamrolling up to Overall Rank 2 with a 91-pointer in GW21! Daniel Sebestyen had that spot locked down with his team “Jason Björn” but drops a few spots down to OR7 after a 53-pointer. Third place is in the league is Simon Eriksson with “AP boys”, who got 54 points and is at OR8. They are just 4, 15, and 24 points below OR1 so obviously a massive feat, hope you can hang on up there and push for the title! 🙂
Secondly, and this is a big one – it’s a Friday night deadline! 17.00 CET, don’t miss out.
The big game of GW21 was Malmö facing off against league leaders Djurgården at home turf. It was a tight game but Malmö ran the show for the most part, ending up with 10 shots (6 on target) to Djurgården’s 6 (1 on target). The game was won by Djurgården however, with Mohamed Buya Turay (9.7m) getting a goal for the third game in a row. It still remains to be seen just how Djurgården will line up with Buya and new signing Emir Kujovic (9.5m) when the latter is at full fitness. Another clean sheet was recorded as well for Djurgården who’s now kept six straight CS and only conceded three goals total in the last thirteen games! Owners of Marcus Danielsson (6.2m), Aslak Fonn Witry (5.4m), Elliot Käck (5.9m) keeps raking in the points, though Käck managed to get himself suspended for the derby against AIK, and Witry is an injury doubt which puts their clean sheet potential against their arch-rivals a bit more in question. Tommy Vaiho (4.6m) continues to impress in goal, this time around saving a Markus Rosenberg (10.3m) penalty in the 69th minute to hang on to the lead. That also means Malmö has missed six out of six penalties so far this season, which is absolutely dreadful and now it’s getting to the point where it could have a real impact on their league-winning ambitions. Malmö seems to be suffering the consequences of mid-week games; drawing four, losing one and winning only one from their last six games.
AIK, on the other hand, managed to bounce back from their surprise defeat at home to Kalmar with a solid 3-1 win away to Östersund. AIK took the lead in the 47th minute through Anton Salétros (7.3m) but Östersund equalised only thirteen minutes later thanks to Blair Turgott (5.2m). 1-1 appeared to be the final score up until Rasmus Lindkvist (6.2m) scored in the 89th minute, followed by Heradi Rashidi (5.7m) four minutes later, keeping AIK just four points behind Djurgården, ahead of their clash this GW.
Hammarby swung up to third place thanks to their 2-0 win away to Falkenberg. The two goals came from Darijan Bojanic (6.9m) who got his third yellow card of the season and missed the trip to Norrköping in GW22. Falkenberg keeper Hampus Nilsson (4.4m) was largely at fault for the result, not to take away the credit from Bojanic but the keeper really should have done a lot better on both goals. Muamer Tankovic (9.6m) provided with one assist, making sure his record of consecutive non-blanks now stands at a very impressive eight games in a row. Some worry for Alexander Kačaniklić (8.9m) as he was substituted in the first half with an apparent injury, latest new indicate he should be alright to take some (if not full) part in the game on Sunday.
Aron Jóhannsson (8.7m) started the game ahead of Imad Khalili (6.8m) but failed to make any real mark on the proceedings, only managing two blocked shot all game. He did get the full 90’ for the first time around though and looks likely to keep his spot for the time being. Nikola Djurdjic (10.6m) has failed to come back to the lofty heights of his GW17 haul of 19 points, yet he’s still shooting a lot and getting into dangerous positions. As Hammarbys good fixture run start to stiffen, he’s going to have to do a lot better to not get the axe from managers with the attacking treble up.
Elsewhere Carlos Strandberg (9.2m) netted a hattrick against Sirius, bringing his tally up to seven goals from his five last games. Strandberg is loving life at Örebro and is up against AFC Eskilstuna at home BUT seems very likely to be leaving for Saudi Arabian club Al-Hazem. The Saudi club has confirmed on Twitter that they’ve agreed on a loan deal with Malmö, Malmö (and Örebro who has little to say in the matter) have yet to confirm it though.
Norrköping blasted past an out of form Helsingborg side 5-0, most notable scorers there were Sead Haksabanovic (8.7m) who got a 15-pointer, Gudmundur Thorarinsson (8.2m) with his 12 points, and my personal favourite defender Lars Krogh Gerson (6.5m) who got 15 points thanks to a CS and scoring a penalty! Göteborg kicked into gear just as their fixtures start turning again with a 4-0 win at home to Kalmar. Robin Söder (8.0m) was the undoubted man of the match with his 18-pointer courtesy of a hattrick and one assist. Worth noting as well that Giorgi Kharaishvili (9.1m) a.k.a. master ticking along – got his first goal since GW8! In that period he’s “only” got five assists, but his bonus point game has been so solid that he’s remained a popular option throughout.
Finally, here are some gameweek 21 stats, courtesy of GoktugErce;
The three most popular captains in the top 1k were:
Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 64.5%, Effective Ownership of 159.0%, scored 6 points.
Alexander Kačaniklić; Captained by 8.6%, Effective Ownership of 86.0%, scored 1 point.
Sead Haksabanovic; Captained by 6.8%, Effective Ownership of 23.1%, scored 15 points.
Gameweek 22 preview
Let’s just start off with another friendly reminder that it’s a Friday night deadline, 17.00 CET.
Malmö are through to the group stages of Europa league after knocking out Israeli side Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv FC. That means we can expect the rotation to continue there, though there is an international break coming up after GW22. Anders Christiansen (10.1m) got his sixth yellow card of the season and misses out on the game against Kalmar, which Rasmus Bengtsson (6.1m) also got himself suspended.
AIK are out of Europe after an emphatic 4-1 loss at home to Celtic. No time to lick the wounds for the black and yellows though, as there is a Stockholm-derby coming up against none other than league-leaders Djurgården. AIK has been defensively solid for a long time and with Djurgården being a fortress this season, so this will most likely be a very tight game. Djurgården are in amazing form but it needs to be pointed out that AIK has an astonishing record against Djurgården in recent years. While Djurgården did manage to beat AIK in the Swedish Cup in 2018, you have to go back as far as 2011 to see the last Djurgården win over AIK in the league… In that period, it’s been 8 draws and 8 wins for AIK. This is a real test for Djurgården and their mentality, but they’ve never looked as good as now during that period.
Meanwhile, Hammarby travel to a Norrköping side that’s looking very sharp, Muamer Tankovic who just got drafted to the national squad will still fancy his chances against the club who fostered him, can he make it nine games in a row without blanking? Otherwise, the two games to target seem to be Häcken taking on Falkenberg at home and Örebro versus AFC Eskilstuna at home. Both could be big, big scores it’s just a matter of who to put your faith in. Could this be another game for Paulinho (11.8m) to prove why he’s the most expensive player in the game? Jeremejeff replacement Gustaf Nilsson (9.0m) has yet to hit the back of the net but will fancy his chances in this one.
Players to target
Sead Haksabanovic hasn’t been getting a lot of mentions here but obviously the top 1k contains a lot of savvy managers, and though his overall ownership is still just 6.8%, he is more popular at the top. He seems to have settled well now at Norrköping, getting 2 goals and 5 assists from his last 3 games… Hammarby may have kept two straight CS but will struggle to get the third one, and Haksabanovic could very well benefit.
Gustaf Nilsson may not have scored yet, but at home to a leaky Falkenberg side, he should be able to get going. Against AFC Eskilstuna he had 4 shots, 2 of them on target.
Captaincy thoughts
Muamer Tankovic will continue to have a crazy EO and even though Norrköping aren’t any pushovers, he will still be a good enough option for most. Kačaniklić appears to have recovered from his knock but the slight doubts should be enough to rule him out of the discussion, rightly or wrongly. Robin Söder is in blistering form and travel to Sundsvall who haven’t kept a clean sheet since GW13 at home to AFC Eskilstuna. Should Carlos Strandberg still be with Örebro at the time of the kick-off, he’s a superb option as well as they face AFC Eskilstuna at home, but it seems unlikely at this point.
Hope you’ll have a great gameweek and if you want to chat about fantasy football either comment here below or hit me up @FF_Meltens on Twitter!
