As Fantasy Premier League is drawing to a close, the Scandinavian leagues are kicking in to replace the hole in our hearts that inevitably arrives after GW38. When all the mini-leagues are finished and most of us are left thinking “well, there’s always next year” (as far as overall rank goes anyway, I’m sure you’re all bossing it in your work-leagues)…
The Norwegian Fantasy Eliteserien has started to gather a bit of a following on the site and the same developers are now gearing up towards the second season of the Swedish version, “Fantasy Allsvenskan”.
The first games are on the 31st of March.
Bonus point system
There is quite a difference between Fantasy Premier League, Fantasy Eliteserien, and the Fantasy Allsvenskan bonus point system.
While FPL is based on the (in)famous stat-based BPS that hands out 1-3 points for the players with the most BPS at the end of the game, Eliteserien goes for a “man in the stands” kind of approach but sticks with 1-3 bonus points.
Allsvenskan, on the other hand, goes for a different approach entirely. There is a max-limit per player that’s set at 2 bonus points for offensive contributions and 2 for defensive actions, which are calculated as follows:
Offensive bonus
1 point for every 3 successful crosses (the ball reaches a teammate in the penalty box).
1 point for every 3 key passes (pass that leads to a shot on target).
1 point for every big chance created (like the rest, big chances are determined by Opta).
Defensive bonus
1 point for every 6 clearance, block or interception.
1 point for every 6 ball recoveries.
Last year in Fantasy Allsvenskan they also had negative bonus points subtraction for “bad” offensive or defensive actions (terrible for frequent and inaccurate shot-takers amongst others), but they’ve removed that this season. There have been a few changes all around to the bonus system but from what I can tell it appears to favour creative players and solid defensive play, and not really punish anyone.
Chips
Last year there were only the classic two Wildcards, but this year they’ve introduced three more chips.
Parkera bussen (Park the bus) – Each defender gets double points. When playing this chip you are stripped of the ability to also have a captain that gameweek.
Framåt! (Attack!) – All forwards get double points. As above, no additional captain in that GW.
Två kaptener (Two captains) – Both your captain and vice-captain get double points.
Teams to watch
Allsvenskan is very much a league where any team on their day can beat anyone (especially at home). There are however a couple of teams that tend to be at the top more often than not, and they look likely to challenge for the top three spots this year as well.
AIK
Champions of last year, AIK looks primed to continue being a top force in Swedish football. Last five seasons they’ve finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd. Their recipe for success has most of the time been their incredible defence, last season they conceded only 16 goals from 30 games, the year before that 22 in 30. Expect a lot of clean sheets if history is anything to go by. Offensively speaking they’ve been quite good but not great, their 50 goals scored bettered by all teams from 2nd to 6th position last season.
Key players:
Daniel Sundgren (7.0m), defender – 1 goal, 5 assists and 13 clean sheets last year from a wingback position. Assuming he stays healthy he will most likely top the charts this year as well. Pricy, but brilliant.
Sebastian Larsson (9.0m), midfielder – 2 goals, 5 assists (signed midway through the season). On a lot of set pieces, Larsson has a history in English football. Mostly noted for his time in Birmingham and Sunderland (2006-2011 and 2011-2016 respectively), he has never been a super prolific goal or assist machine but as far as Allsvenskan goes, he should rack up some points.
Henok Goitom (10.0m), forward – 11 goals and 6 assists last season. Takes penalties (most of the time) and is always a threat in attack. Will probably share some gametime with Tarik Elyounoussi (9.0m) and Chinedu Obasi (9.0m), as AIK has lined up with a 3-5-2 in recent years. He tends to be the one that’s most assured of starts however.
IFK Norrköping
Norrköping is an old powerhouse in Swedish football that is starting to come back to life. The last five season they’ve finished 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 1st and (before they started to get back to it), 12th. Less defensively solid than AIK, but slightly more prolific attack-wise. Not much in it though, last year they scored 51 to AIK’s 50.
Key players:
Isak Petterson (6.0m), goalkeeper – top scoring keeper in Allsvenskan last season with 11 clean sheets, 87 saves and 1 penalty save.
Christoffer Nyman (10.0m), forward – the prodigal son returns for Norrköping after two mixed seasons abroad. Back in 2015 and 2016 he was a driving force in their league-winning campaign together with Emir Kujovic (still plying his trade outside of Sweden).
Karl Holmberg (8.5m), forward – had a bit of a tougher time scoring goals last time around but still got 8 goals and 6 assists. The season before that he got 14 goals and 3 assists. If he keeps his starting spot with the introduction of Nyman, he will be in the points.
Malmö FF
The team that just recently got knocked out of the Europa League by Chelsea after putting up a decent fight has been really good by Swedish standards for a long time now. Last five seasons they’ve finished 3rd, 1st, 1st, 5th and 1st. They’ve also had some runs in the Europa and Champions League that’s ensured their finances are better than most Swedish teams, allowing them to scoop up Scandinavian talents in recent years. The result is (by Swedish standards) a bit of a Manchester City, where they tend to dominate most games but the points can be a bit spread around and rotation is quite frequent. Pre-season and the first few games should tell us more about the potential lineups.
Key players:
Eric Larsson (6.5m), defender – 2 goals, 7 assists and 9 clean sheets. Very attacking and favoured by the bonus system last time around.
Romain Gall (8.5m), midfielder – 12 goals, 7 assists. Played for GIF Sundsvall first half of the season but got poached by a “struggling” Malmö and helped them secure a top three finish.
Sören Rieks (9.5m), midfielder – 10 goals, 5 assists. Had a bit of a patchy form last season but when he’s in the zone he is really good and attacking.
Forwards are a bit tough to call right now given they have four really good strikers in Markus Rosenberg (10.0m), Marcus Antonsson (11.0m), Carlos Strandberg (9.0m) and Jo Inge Berget (9.0m), being backed up by Guillermo Molins (8.5m). Some of them might play in the midfield but all have potential to score big IF they start most games up top.
Future Allsvenskan coverage
There will be articles covering the league through the season, and a few more leading up to GW1.
Leave suggestions in the comment section on topics to cover.
Like the Eliteserien articles, only Allsvenskan comments will be allowed in the comment boxes. Feel free to flag comments that are about the wrong league!
Also, a tip: try to have a decent bench as suspensions (for every 3 yellow cards) and surprise injuries (no pre-game press conferences) mean that it is quite common to need the bench to show up!
Link to the signup-page is here.
FFS League Code: 2710-621.
Meltens
5 years, 1 month agoThanks for writing!
Looking forward to the season.
Anyone done a draft yet?