Fantasy Allsvenskan – Gameweek 24

The Friday deadline’s in Fantasy Allsvenskan keeps on coming, another one in Gameweek 24 – as usual it’s at 17.00 CET. It’s also a quick turnaround after that, as GW25 is played midweek (starting Tuesday), so active management will most likely be rewarded!

Gameweek 23 review

GW23 contained a lot of hard to judge games on paper as six of the top seven all played each other. In Hammarby-Göteborg we saw a decimated home side without Alexander Kačaniklić (8.7m) and Nikola Djurdjic (10.3m) pump the gas early on, going up 3-0 within the first 13 minutes. The game ended 6-2 in favour of Hammarby, with a deadly Giorgi Kharaishvili (9.2m) scoring twice for Göteborg. It looked for the longest while as if Muamer Tankovic (9.6m) would get a second blank in a row, instead, he settled the scoreline in the 85th minute. Just the one goal then in a six-goal romp which undeniably is a bit of a disappointment for captainers, he appeared to lack the quality players around him to play off with one-twos like he usually does. Instead, Darijan Bojanic (7.0m) and Jeppe Andersen (7.5m) came bombing forward, while Tankovic struggled to get into advanced positions. Bojanic now has 3 goals and 1 assist in his last 2 games played for the green and whites, and he’s seemingly becoming more influential as the season draws to a close. With this 12-point haul, he’s now at 100 points total for the season, which is actually 6 more than Kačaniklić.

Injuries continue to plague Hammarby as both Aron Jóhannsson (8.6m) and Imad Khalili (6.7m) had to be substituted off within the first 18 minutes – keep an eye on the developments there to see how Hammarby will line up in GW24. Kačaniklić latest is that he took full part in training and seems fit, (can’t guarantee anything of course), while Jóhannsson and Khalili remain doubtful along with Simon Sandberg (5.0m).

In Häcken-AIK we got to see Häcken give it all they had with 13 shots (5 on target) against AIK’s 7 (5 on target). As we’ve come to expect, AIK remains defensively solid and came out on top 2-1 thanks to goals from Chinedu Obasi (8.5m) and Sebastian Larsson (8.7m). Paulinho (11.9m) remains a force to be reckoned with and he got another goal, along with another customary yellow card (his 7th this season). His lack of bonus points, disciplinary record, and his fitness remains big caveats to such a huge investment of our budget but he’ll score more goals as long as he plays – without a doubt.

Malmö-Norrköping was a tight affair that Malmö managed to win 1-0 thanks to Sören Rieks (9.5m), where Sead Haksabanovic (8.9m) showed some promising signs but ultimately came away from it with just 1 point. Norrköping keeper Isak Petterson (6.0m) had a good game and despite failing to make it seven games in a row without conceding, he looks primed for a great end to the season with those fixtures coming up – Örebro (H), AFC Eskilstuna (H), Falkenberg (a), Sundsvall (a), Kalmar (H).

Elsewhere Djurgården struggled in the first half against Helsingborg at home, but were (by far) the better team in the second half. Mohamed Buya Turay (9.8m) was highly involved but didn’t really manage to threaten the Helsingborg keeper Anders Lindegaard (4.9m) who in fairness had a great game despite conceding twice, racking up 8 saves and 2 defensive bonus points. Instead, the new signing and slightly longer-term solution for Djurgården’s striker situation Emir Kujovic (9.5m) came in when the clock reached 71 minutes. It took him just 50 seconds to head in a failed shot from Buya Turay  (or incredibly accurate cross depending on your view on the matter…), 7 minutes later he made it 2-0 from a nice opening pass by old team mate Nicklas Bärkroth (7.6m). Buya is suspended for the Friday game away to Sundsvall and Kujovic will most likely be leading the line, which makes him an incredibly interesting option for GW24. Another clean sheet as you might have gathered then for Djurgården, who now have 7 CS in 8 games, and an astoundingly low total of 4 goals conceded from the last 15 games!

Finally, here are some gameweek 23 stats, credit to poohdini;

The three most popular captains in the top 1k were:

Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 18.7%, Effective Ownership of 112.5%, scored 7 points.

Elliot Käck; Captained by 14.0%, Effective Ownership of 56.7%, scored 9 points.

Muhamed Buya Turay; Captained by 13.3%, Effective Ownership of 44.2%, scored 6 points.

Gameweek 24 preview

Plenty of strikers suspended this week as Giorgi Kharaishvili, Mohamed Buya Turay, Philip Haglund (7.8m), and Tarik Elyounoussi (9.0m) all miss out. That’s four of the top seven scoring strikers in the game, albeit the first pair are far more likely to find themselves in active manager’s teams.

On Friday, Djurgården travel to Sundsvall in a game that could be Kujuvic first shot at nicking the starting spot from Buya Turay. Owners of Djurgården defensive assets will be hoping for a continuation of their incredible results so far this season, while Sundsvall has only scored 2 goals in their last 6 games. Sundsvall new signing, keeper David Mitov Nilsson (4.8m), has started life at the club well though, getting 17 saves and 41 ball recoveries from just 4 games played.

Norrköping has a very favourable match-up against Örebro at home on Saturday, and as mentioned this is the start of a very nice fixture-run for them with AFC Eskilstuna (H), Falkenberg (a), Sundsvall (a), Kalmar (H) in the gameweeks after.  Perhaps a Norrköping treble up is on the cards? At the very least, a double-up seems logical. Göteborg without the suspended Kharaishvili should still have enough to deal with Sirius who’s also without Philip Haglund.

The big game of the week is undoubtedly Hammarby-AIK… Another Stockholm derby and it really comes down to whether or not AIK can stifle Hammarby’s potent attack with their very solid defence. Recent years (and the reverse fixture this year) would suggest that they can, however Hammarby haven’t lost a game at home this season winning 9, drawing 2, with a goal difference of 36-12. Since Hammarby came back up to the top division in 2015, there’s been 9 games in the league between the two clubs and the result reads as 5 wins for AIK, 2 draws and 2 wins for Hammarby. While Hammarby during those years have never looked quite as good as they do now, AIK are experts at shutting them down. Expect a tight affair unless Hammarby somehow manages to blitz AIK in the opening 20 minutes. I’d probably try to avoid captaining any player in this fixture since neither club should run away with it, though Tankovic can’t ever be completely ruled out of the conversation.

Players to target

Emir Kujovic should be nailed to start against Sundsvall and if he does well there, it seems harsh to relegate him back to the bench once Buya Turay is back. Far be it from me to try to second guess the coach’s intentions, but in my opinion, the only thing holding Kujovic from a starting spot is lack of match fitness. He looked great in his short spell against Helsingborg, coming in and grabbing the game by the neck, bending it to his will. Djurgården really needs a clinical striker to finish off all of their wonderful crosses from the fullbacks, Kujovic could be that missing peg.

Isak Petterson has the fixtures, he has the bonus points (24 so far and 2nd highest amongst goalkeepers, only Örebro’s Oscar Jansson (5.0m) has better), he has the save points (ranked third). He’s also on six clean sheets from his last seven games, what’s not to like?

Sead Haksabanovic might not have scored away to Malmö, but ahead of this fixture run and with the form he’s showing, he seems like a no-brainer. Just get him in, cap him every once in a while and enjoy the points. I was sceptical at the start of the season, but it seems he just needed some bedding in time and now he’s starting to prove why West Ham bought him for 3 million euros in 2017. He might not have made it there so far going out on two successive loan-spells, but he sure seems able to light up Allsvenskan on his day.

Nils Fröling (5.7m) is the final recommendation and this is more on the budget side of things. Kalmar have nice fixtures from now until the end of the season with Häcken (H), Sundsvall (H), Helsingborg (a), AFC Eskilstuna (H), Norrköping (a), Falkenberg (H), and finally Sirius (a). Could his two goals against Östersund in GW23 be an indication of good things to come? At that price, you don’t need him to brace every week, as long as your expectations are set at the right level, he should do you good!

Captaincy thoughts

Robin Söder goes up at home to a leaky Sirius who previous to GW23 hadn’t kept a clean sheet since GW11. He might miss his teammate Kharaishvili but really, Söder will have all the chances to improve on his season tally of 11 goals.

Sead Haksabanovic faces Örebro and he seems like a man possessed, I fully trust him to get something from this game as he aims to prove that Malmö was just a minor blip. Previous to that he had 3 goals and 5 assists in 4 games.

Muamer Tankovic will continue to reach EO’s of over 100% in the top 1k given his extremely high ownership, but this seems like a match where you could probably roll the dice with someone else. Not saying he’ll blank (I personally hope he smashes it as a Hammarby supporter…) but AIK are superb at going 1-0 up and shutting teams down completely. If Kačaniklić starts that would boost his appeal, but still the other two options seem more clear cut to me this week.

There you have it! What are your thoughts on the Stockholm derby, who will come out on top? Who are you looking to captain?

As always, good luck this gameweek and if you want to chat about fantasy football either comment here below, or hit me up @FF_Meltens on Twitter!