A dramatic gameweek 29 leaves AIK licking their wounds and accepting their part in the title race this season is all played out, while Djurgården, Hammarby and Malmö still have their sights set on the trophy. Djurgården will win it as long as they don’t lose away to Norrköping, while Malmö needs Djurgården to lose while they beat Örebro away. Hammarby, on the other hand, need Djurgården to lose while they beat Häcken but not only that – assuming Malmö also wins their game, they also need to win against Häcken by a margin of one more goal than Malmö wins by! All set up for a highly dramatic finish to Allsvenskan with goals all over the place then (or a torrid affair with everyone limping over the finish line, but let’s hope not). Yours truly will be within the green and white mass at Tele2, praying for a goal-fest and a title for only the second time in the club’s history!
Gameweek 29 review
We have a lot of ground to cover in the preview so we’ll keep the review brisk but GW29 proved to be a big week both for the top-ranked clubs and the bottom dwellers, as Hammarby travelled to Östersund and just barely eked out a win. Forgotten man Imad Khalili (6.4m) scored the first and Nikola Djurdjic (10.7m) the second, assisted by Alexander Kačaniklić (8.7m) and Darijan Bojanic (7.5m) respectively. Khalili starting meant that Vladimir Rodic (8.2m) dropped out, remains to be seen if he is reinstated for the final game at home. Those goals mean that Hammarby also broke the record for most goals scored in Allsvenskan (71 after this) and a short recap video of the season-long onslaught of goals can be found here for those interested.
Malmö faced off against AIK in a do or die game where AIK eventually succumbed to the pressure. It took a while but in the 78th minute Anders Christiansen (9.8m) who had just been on the pitch for five minutes smashed in 1-0. 2-0 came nine minutes later through Arnór Ingvi Traustason (9.0m). AIK are thus out of the race for the title and in a cruel twist of fate also out of the top three, unless they somehow claw back a goal difference of 12/13 goals vs Hammarby/Malmö in the final game. They could however still qualify for Europe if they either win the Swedish cup, or finish fourth and one of the top three clubs win the cup instead.
Djurgården had a comfortable game at home to Örebro which never really looked like finishing with anything other than three points. Mohamed Buya Turay (9.8m) managed to place himself firmly in the center of attention once again as he scored another goal only to be substituted off immediately after, where he spent a while on the bench sulking since he’s aiming for the golden boot and felt disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to go for more.
Finally, here are some gameweek 29 stats, gathered from @poohdini59 on Twitter;
The three most popular captains in the top 1k were:
Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 28.0%, EO 92.8%, scored 4 points.
Marcus Danielsson; Captained by 12.5%, EO 73.3%, scored 8 points.
Nikola Djurdjic; Captained by 11.2%, EO 62.8%, scored 5 points.
Gameweek 30 preview
So here we are, 29 gameweeks later… Norrköping-Djurgården promises to be a modern-day classic in terms of tension, with the hosts having won eight straight games at home with a goal difference of 22-1. Djurgården wins the title as long as they don’t lose this game so expect a tight game, if Norrköping takes the lead however, things could open up. Most defenders in the two teams have attacking threat as well so might as well play them unless you have some really good bench options.
Hammarby entertains Häcken at home with a very clear objective, win and if possible, win big! We all know that Hammarby can score a few and despite struggling all season defensively, there has been some positive signs in that department as well. Like Norrköping, Hammarby have eight straight wins at home (and 12-2-0 on the season), but the goal difference indicates that there are different ways of going about it, as they have 31-9 instead of 22-1. Häcken are no pushovers but given the way to challenging for the title includes scoring one more goal than Malmö, expect Hammarby to go for it in front of the home crowd. Muamer Tankovic (9.5m) might not have fulfilled the role we hoped for away to Östersund but at home, with a competition for the golden boot against Buya Turay (and to a lesser extent Nikola Djudjic and Robin Söder), chances are good he gets something from this game.
Malmö travel to Örebro and they need to win to keep their title hopes alive, preferably by a big margin so they don’t have to bother too much about how it goes in the Hammarby game. Anders Christiansen will miss out on the final game though as he suffered another setback with his calf problem. Arnór Ingvi Traustason needs to try to provide the creative spark in his place.
In the bottom of the league, Kalmar aren’t out of the woods yet since they lost at home to Falkenberg, they now travel to Uppsala to take on Sirius who are safe from relegation. The big news in Kalmar is that underperforming coach Magnus Pehrsson opted to step down ahead of the final game which means that academy chief Jens Nilsson steps in together with U19 coaches Jörgen Petersson and Stefan Larsson – who’s been doing a great job getting Kalmar to play attacking football at youth level. Sirius coach Henrik Rydström is a Kalmar legend who got forced out of the club after last season despite the fans wanting him to stay, and he’s now faced with the prospect of sending his old club down to the second division. The “big” game in the bottom of the table is Falkenberg at home to AFC Eskilstuna, where Eskilstuna are rock bottom on 20 points and Falkenberg are two spots ahead on 22, which currently means a playoff against the team that comes third in the league below. Wedged in between them we have Sundsvall who travel to AIK with a really tough task of getting all three points.
Players to target
It’s definitely differential time so I’ve tried to go for some really low ownership players to target for one final push! Keep in mind they are firmly in the punt-category but with just one week left to go, why not roll the dice?
Alexander Jakobsen returned a solitary assist last week, arguably a bit disappointing after being talked up on here but it was always going to be a two-week gamble. Still owned by just 0.6%, he has every chance of adding to that tally in a hugely important game for Kalmar away to Sirius! Kalmar needs the win to have it all within their own hands and Jakobsen could prosper under new management.
Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (8.8m) has struggled in his first season with AIK, only getting two goals and three assists in 953 minutes played. As a result, he’s owned by just 1.6% and now have one final chance to improve his tally in front of the home fans – against Sundsvall who’s very likely heading out of the league. Sundsvall will be motivated, sure, but AIK will want to put on a show for the faithful fans who turn up despite the title being whisked away by Malmö in GW29.
Are we really going to consider a Hammarby defender? Richard Magyar (5.0m) has played a huge role in Hammarby’s defence starting to get the occasional clean sheet and he’s returned two goals, one assist and four clean sheets since returning to the club this summer. Owned by just 0.6%, he represents a shrewd punt for those looking at a defensive transfer – could he be this week Lauritsen?
Alexander Fransson (8.0m) is the most popular option in this particular list at 5.5% ownership yet those numbers arguably should be higher, given he’s returned five goals and five assists on the season, along with 15 defensive and 2 offensive bonus points. Crucially, he appears to end the season on a high note as his last five GW-point tallies are 6, 4, 7, 3, and 16.
Captaincy thoughts
Muamer Tankovic is at home, going for the golden boot, on penalties, and Hammarby has to win by a large number of goals to have a chance of finishing either second or, as the target obviously has to be, first. Understandably people might want a bit more of a differential for the final week to push up in the league, and Hammarby offers up another alternative with similar prospects – Alexander Kačaniklić. With two goals and one assist in his last three games, he’s a man in form along with striker Nikola Djurdjic who’s got three goals and two assists in the last four games. Djurdjic is two goals behind Tankovic in the race for the golden boot and we might even see a bit of friendly competition between the two, should he start approaching the same tally.
Henok Goitom (10.1m) face a Sundsvall side that will be highly motivated, but even though AIK really only have the fourth place to play for (unless they score an insane amount of goals while Hammarby/Malmö lose really big), I expect a home side that will want to finish the season on a high note. Goitom has the potential to go big as we saw against Falkenberg, and this is a similar level of opposition (but with a better keeper to be fair).
Hope you all have a great final gameweek and regardless of how it ends, I’ve been very blessed this season with such great support from you lot so thanks a million for that! I might do some FPL-articles in the wait for next season but will otherwise try to make the most of this period of time up until March/April when it all kicks off again, hope to see you once more then. If you want to chat about fantasy football either comment here below – or hit me up @FF_Meltens on Twitter!
4 years, 5 months ago
I think the first and foremost thing that needs to be said is a huge thank you to Meltens for his work on these articles this season. Continuously top quality and have really helped drive discussion - absolutely phenomenal. Been an honour to work with you on these this season, by which I mean I've had to do very little 🙂
As for the high-flying FFS members in the chase for #1 OR - good luck to Daniel Sebestyen and Jan Inge Nordby! Also hoping to see Henrik Mäkitalo and Simon Eriksson finish in the top 10, been a fantastic season for all 4 of you and hope you all have the finishes you deserve.