We’re now moving into the final third of the season and the Allsvenskan table is starting to break into clear segments. 7th placed Norrköping are nine points ahead of 8th placed Örebro, but also 10 points behind Djurgården who tops the charts with 41 points. In between them we’ve got AIK, Malmö, Hammarby, Häcken, and Göteborg. “No mans land” can roughly be categorised as 8th to 10th with Örebro, Östersund, and Elfsborg not really in the relegation fight, but definitely not in the mix for top three either. There are only six points separating 11th placed Helsingborg from bottom dwellers Sundsvall. Wedged in between them we’ve got Sirius, Falkenberg, Kalmar, and AFC Eskilstuna, so expect some teams to possibly fade away (looking at you Sundsvall), while others make one desperate late attempt to stay up.
Gameweek 19 review
Djurgården delivered in a big way as they dominated Sirius and came away from it with a 4-0 victory. Marcus Danielsson (6.1m) got six points but the fullbacks were the ones who really impressed, Aslak Fonn Witry (5.4m) and Elliot Käck (5.9m) both netted a 14-point haul thanks to a clean sheet, two assists and two offensive bonus points. Up front the goals were spread around with Jonathan Ring (8.0m), Fredrik Ulvestad (6.5m), Mohamed Buya Turay (9.6m) and new signing from Östersund Curtis Edwards (8.7m), all getting in on the action.
AIK had an interesting game away to AFC Eskilstuna which ended 4-2 in favour of the travelling black and yellows. After five straight clean sheets, AIK now conceded twice whilst rotating heavily again. As AIK (at the time of writing) still remain in the European qualifiers, we can unfortunately expect to see this trend continue for a while. Arguably, no one is completely safe even if they get knocked out as the squad depth and genuine competition for spots in the starting line-up is quite fierce. Felix Michel (4.8m) got another start in central midfield while Karol Mets (6.5m), Daniel Granli (4.5m) and Robert Lundström (6.0m) all missed out. Nabil Bahoui (9.6m) was brilliant when he came on in the 57th minute, initially playing in midfield but moved up front just a few minutes later when Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (9.2m) got subbed off. He managed to impress in a short time with one assist (fouled for the penalty) and two smartly taken goals.
As usual for the captaincy, most top managers turned to Hammarby against Helsingborg and even though the fireworks were noticeably missing, they still provided us with points. Muamer Tankovic (9.5m) got his customary goal and bonus (one defensive, one offensive) while Alexander Kačaniklić (8.8m) got one goal, one assist and one offensive bonus point as he was tasked with filling in for Nikola Djurdjic (10.4m) in the “number ten”-role. Djurdjic absence was noticeable and led to Imad Khalili (7.0m) getting shunted out wide which greatly reduced his goal-threat without any clear upturn in assist-potential. Aron Jóhannsson (8.9m) took up the role as central striker but failed to make a real mark on the proceedings, though he did register an assist. Just one shot which was blocked and 11 touches overall in 64 minutes (Khalili registered 34 touches, Kačaniklić 42, and Tankovic 55, though they got the full 90’) indicates he’s still a bit rusty, which could be good news for Khalili owners who worry about his spot when Djurdjic comes back next week. Coach Stefan Billborn could of course decide he needs to play Jóhannsson into form, sacrificing Khalili in the process. If Khalili starts rotating too much or (crucially) doesn’t get game-time as a striker, his prospects will swiftly diminish so it’s one to keep track of for those invested in him, myself included.
Here are some gameweek 19 stats, courtesy of GoktugErce;
The three most popular captains in the top 1k:
Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 77.8%, Effective Ownership of 171.1%, scored 9 points.
Giorgi Kharaishvili; Captained by 6.0%, Effective Ownership of 78.9%, scored 7 points.
Alexander Kačaniklić; Captained by 3.8%, Effective Ownership of 61.5%, scored 11 points.
Top 1k average points for the gameweek was 78.1, compared to the overall average of 51 points.
Extra feature this week is a chip usage report of the current top 1k:
754 have played the second Wildcard, 654 have “parked the bus”, 800 have played two captains and 349 have utilised the “attack attack”-chip.
It was also a good week for the “players to target”-segment as both Buya Turay and Robin Söder (7.8m) delivered, though Daleho Irandust (9.5m) blanked at home to Malmö. Söder thus continues his great form, scoring five goals in his last five games.
Gameweek 20 preview
It’s looking like an interesting week to deploy the “park the bus”-chip as there are some very nice fixtures to target. The biggest issue with that is not being able to captain a Hammarby or Malmö attacking player, but the fixtures look very promising for clean sheets with Djurgården-AFC Eskilstuna, Malmö-Falkenberg, AIK-Kalmar, and (if the clean sheet will ever arrive it should be now…) Hammarby-Sundsvall. Norrköping away to Sirius also looks a decent bet for a CS, and it’s not entirely out of the question for Göteborg to nick one as well travelling to Helsingborg. The other side of it is of course that you might be tempted to go with another chip in a more attacking sense, which also shouldn’t be scoffed at.
AIK, Malmö and Norrköping continue their European adventures so keep a close watch on minutes and outcomes on Thursday to make informed decisions on transfers and captaincies.
Deadline day transfers
Big news as Alexander Jeremejeff (10.0m) has been sold by Häcken to German side Dynamo Dresden, meaning a lot of managers will be forced to move him out as well! Gustaf Nilsson (not added) was signed as a replacement, although we could also see Viktor Lundberg (7.2m) or Paulinho (11.8m) slot in up top to fill the void. The latter is however suspended against Örebro for reaching six yellow cards and has been struggling this season to live up to his price-tag.
Right-back Felix Beijmo (not added) signed a loan-deal for Malmö from Werder Bremen, increasing competition and squad depth. By doing so he also ruffled a few feathers in the Djurgården community, as he was a fan-favourite quite recently between 2017-2018 before moving abroad. Helping Malmö in the fight for the league title won’t be hugely popular amongst the Djurgården faithful.
Djurgården in turn finally ended the “will they won’t they” transfer-saga of signing striker Emir Kujovic (not added) which will increase competition up front and add more firepower to an attack that’s at times looked a bit lacklustre. He won’t start immediately though as he’s not played much since 2017/2018 and he also needs to relocate his family from Germany to Sweden. Back in 2015 while playing for Norrköping, he won the golden boot with 21 goals and 5 assists in 29 games. All in all, he managed 43 goals and 12 assists in 71 games for Norrköping and once settled at Djurgården, will be one to keep a close watch on.
Players to target
Elliot Käck had another impressive display where he was very involved in chance creation for Djurgården, a trend that doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. At home to AFC Eskilstuna could quite reasonably be another haul, though you should also be aware that Djurgården then has two of the worst back to back fixtures you could possibly have, with away-games to Malmö and AIK before it gets better again with Helsingborg (H), Sundsvall (a), and Falkenberg (H). Is he a better option than Danielsson and Witry? The jury’s still out on that one. Personally, I’m looking at a treble up and parking the bus this week!
Nabil Bahoui has qualities that (to use a tired phrase) goes way beyond this league. Just where he fits into the team on a regular basis is anyone’s guess but as I stated when they signed him – he has 36 goals and 29 assists in 90 games for AIK. He’s going to keep being eased into it, but this is a superb player who will (from time to time if nothing else), be OOP as a striker for AIK… The question shouldn’t be if, but when you get him in. Monitor AIK players for fitness, minutes etc. on Thursday and keep in mind that while Kalmar at home is a good fixture, AIK then has a seemingly tricky run with Östersund (a), Djurgården (H), Häcken (a), Hammarby (a), and Göteborg (H). Still a huge differential, he could move to the template in a similar fashion as Kačaniklić has in recent weeks. To pour some water on my own lavishly created hype-fire though, his minutes are obviously still being managed, and he will be needed in Europe as well – keep that in mind. Daleho Irandust and “AC” also shouldn’t be so swiftly dismissed and with Kačaniklić and Tankovic along with our expensive strikers, the budget might start feeling increasingly tight. Timing will be key with this one.
Captaincy thoughts
Rouge shout would be one of the Djurgården fullbacks but the sensible choice is either a Hammarby player (Tankovic, Kačaniklić or the returning Djurdjic) or Malmö’s dynamic midfielder and bonus-point darling Anders Christiansen (10.1m). Hammarby-Sundvall and Malmö-Falkenberg just scream captaincy so if you’re not parking the bus, that’s definitely where I’d go.
As always, best of luck to you this gameweek and if you want to chat about fantasy football either comment here below or hit me up @FF_Meltens on Twitter!