Fantasy Allsvenskan Gameweek 28

After another international break this season of Fantasy Allsvenskan is drawing to a close… With just three GWs to go, we have 4 managers from the FFS league in the top 10 overall which is an impressive feat in and of itself! The “actual football” part of it is just as exciting, as the three Stockholm clubs AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby are all fighting it out together with Malmö for the title. Malmö are currently first on 59 points (Goal Difference +35), Djurgården are second on 59 points (GD +30), Hammarby are third with 56 points (GD +31), and AIK are fourth, also on 56 points (GD +20). There are some absolutely massive games still to be played, with Hammarby-Malmö and Göteborg-Djurgården kicking the show to life in GW28!

Gameweek 27 review

Let’s start off by offering our condolences to Djurgården who have been so dominant this year, losing just four times but crucially, all of those games have been against their local rivals AIK and Hammarby who remains in the title race because of it… Djurgården’s difficulties in the derbies since 2011 have been well recorded and we won’t dwell on it too long, but for readers outside of Sweden, it is quite a unique happening as it’s not really representative of how it’s been traditionally. Keep in mind though that Hammarby spent five years in between 2010 and 2014 in the league below, and AIK have been great for a long time – but still, even with a close to perfect game-plan for Djurgården against Hammarby in GW27, just a few minutes loss of concentration cost them the game.

Tactically Djurgården’s coaching staff were right on the money, their players flying out of the gates to pressure Hammarby whenever they got hold of the ball, forcing them into making errors and creating a few dangerous situations. Goalkeeper Davor Blazevic (4.3m) who’s filling in for injured Johan Wiland (4.9m) looked a bit shaky initially but grew into the game as it went on. All Hammarby’s attacks were broken down early and if it hadn’t been for the lack of clinical finishing from Mohamed Buya Turay (9.7m) and Astrit Ajdarevic (8.5m), Djurgården would have entered the half time with a lead. The second half started off a bit better for Hammarby and minutes 53-56 turned out to be decisive. In the 53rd minute Nikola Djurdjic (10.4m) broke loose and was found through a nice little pass from Simon Sandberg (5.0m). The same Sandberg also assisted Alexander Kačaniklić (8.4m) just three minutes later, doubling the lead. The attacking fullback now stands at seven assists on the season, despite not offering any real prospect of a clean sheet, he’s doing what he can to remain relevant in the fantasy discussion. Sandberg produced these minutes of brilliance despite not having eaten anything in the last couple of days and according to coach Stefan Billborn “he looked like a bag of wet cupcakes in the dressing room”.

It looked like Hammarby were going to grab the game by the neck and push Djurgården back but just three minutes later Jeppe Andersen (7.4m) made a really rash challenge on Jesper Karlström (6.0m) and was deservedly sent off for a second yellow card offence. The game thus shifted back to Djurgården who really pushed on to claw back the deficit. Buya Turay made it 1-2 in the 74th minute assisted by Jacob Une Larsson (5.4m) and the siege was fully on after that. An unusually solid Blazevic made some spectacular saves and Djurgården also had a ball hit the bar from close-range before the final whistle blew. Djurgården had ten shots (seven on target) to Hammarby’s five (two on target) and the ball 62% of the time, dominating most of the stats as well as the eye test – but it wasn’t to be this time either in the derby.

In other news from GW27, AIK won at home to Örebro 2-0 thanks to a Henok Goitom (9.9m) brace. Sebastian Larsson (9.0m) is starting to deliver a few attacking returns as well and provided one of the assists along with three bonus points. Örebro continues to underwhelm and have now lost three of their last four games, though to be completely fair they’ve faced Norrköping, Hammarby, and AIK in that period. Malmö keeps steaming on and won at home to Göteborg 1-0 thanks to ex-Djurgården defender Felix Beijmo (6.5m) scoring in the 62nd minute. André Calisir (5.0m) just back from a red card in GW25 against AIK repeated the feat against Malmö and will now also miss out on the game against Djurgården, owners are understandably jumping ship with Calisir who seems hell-bent on messing with our squads and Göteborgs results. Robin Söder (7.9m) and Giorgi Kharaishvili (9.0m) are also both struggling a bit now that the fixtures have turned for them.

Finally, here are some gameweek 27 stats, this week gathered from @poohdini59 on Twitter;

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

Sead Haksabanovic; Captained by 40.8%, EO 122.4%, scored 7 points.

Jesper Karlsson; Captained by 9.1%, EO 49.0%, scored 7 points.

Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 6.4%, EO 91.0%, scored 1 point.

Gameweek 28 preview

Friday night deadline again at 17.00 CET! It’s easy to get caught out during the international break so set an alarm or fix your team ASAP.

Malmö travel to Stockholm to take on a steaming Hammarby side who will have to make do without the suspended duo of Jeppe Andersen and Muamer Tankovic (9.4m). The winner in this game is going to be in a very good position ahead of the final two games, while the loser (especially if it’s Hammarby) could struggle to keep up with the rest. Hammarby will go for it in front of the home crowd so expect an open match with goals from both sides, but how will they cope without Tankovic? Anders Christiansen (9.9m) should be back for this crucial fight, though reports are scarce at the time of writing.

AIK will go to Falkenberg who are struggling to avoid relegation, the hosts will most likely put up a fight but AIK should have enough to deal with them. Henok Goitom and Sebastian Larsson are both interesting options, as we’ll get into in a bit. Djurgården are also on the road, going to Göteborg on Monday to try to keep this title challenge in their own hands. Currently second on just goal difference, this might start to play on their minds (especially in GW29 at home to Örebro). I don’t think they’ll throw all caution to the wind yet but both Örebro and the final game away to Norrköping could be high scoring for this very reason. There were somewhat confusing training ground reports this week about Mohamed Buya Turay stating that he was carried off the pitch in what “looked to be a career-ending injury, as it usually does, but it seems like a minor strain or impact and he should be fine for next week, unless something extreme happens. There are plenty of days to recover ahead of the next game.” Make of that what you will, hopefully we’ll get some more news ahead of the deadline – though I doubt it to be honest.

Norrköping entertain Kalmar and Sead Haksabanovic has actually returned in his five last games at home, getting three goals and six assists as well as five bonus points. Lars Krogh Gersson (6.9m) is the top-scoring defender so far (154 points) and as a matter of fact, he’s the second-highest scoring player overall after just Muamer Tankovic (175 points)! If he can wrestle penalties back from Christoffer Nyman (10.1m) he could even be a good captaincy shout this week.

Players to target

Henok Goitom is the spearhead of an AIK attack that faces off against Falkenberg, who’s been far from defensively solid this year. This fixture plus the one against Sundvall in GW30 could be great for attacking returns, and as a matter of fact just like Djurgården they need to score some goals to make up the goal difference… They’ll probably struggle to make up much of that difference away to Malmö so now could be the time.

Sebastian Larsson spent the international break with the Swedish national team doing what he does best currently, score penalties. On a lot of set pieces, he’s starting to prove his fantasy worth as well (his overall importance on the pitch is hard to do justice sometimes in a points-driven world).

Vladimir Rodic (8.3m) used to play for Malmö between 2015-2016 and we all know how that usually goes – it’s either a shambolic performance or an electric one, and I choose to take a positive stance on this one. Even if he doesn’t go completely bonkers this game, there’s always Östersund (a) and Häcken (H) before the season wraps up!

Captaincy thoughts

Sead Haksabanovic is the logical, “safe” choice. League leaders will see little reason to look elsewhere and for a good reason, he’s turning into the equivalent of early-season Tankovic.

Henok Goitom could be one for all you fellow chasers though, AIK tends to rarely smash teams out the park but if they get an early one in against Falkenberg, it could be an onslaught.

Lars Krogh Gersson gets thrown in as well and if you’re backing a Norrköping clean sheet, there’s always a good chance of some bonus and an attacking return with this wingback who’s also on corners. Possibly still on pens, I think Nyman took the last one mostly just to get going again, but we’ll see.

That’s it for me, 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!