Football Season Guide

Brann were mostly quite good last season as for long stretches they were firmly in the race for the title with the likes of Viking and Bodø and definitely gave both teams pretty tough time. But they withered under the strain of the extra European games and the loss of a few key players to injuries in the final few weeks and that deprived them of even the third place at the end as Tromsø edged them out. That means an early start in Europa Conference League in the summer and no medals at the end which makes it a pretty disappointing first season for Freyr Alexandrensson at the helm. Yet he will be looking for the season ahead with conviction and motivation to make Brann more capable, resilient and closer to a title-contending side than they were. They do a couple of new faces in the ranks as Kristall Ingason and Jón Dagur Thorsteinsson that give the squad more variety in midfield and in the final third. However, they have seen a few key players leave too as Emil Kornvig chose continue his career in Poland, standout centre-back Elvind Helland headed to Italy and Japhet Serry Larsen moved to the USA. The lack of genuine depth and alternatives in the back after the departure of the latter two is something to look at as the season kicks off as Alexandrensson hopes that the likes of Frederik Knudsen and Nana Boakye stay fit for the majority of the campaign. There is still ample quality in the ranks when everyone is fit and if Sivaer Magnusson is back to his best form after the long-term injury, they do have probably the best attacking player in the entire league. Egger Gudmundsson and Felix Horn Myhre are also outstanding players who would start for every side in the league and that makes the Bergen outfit quite a threat. But they do seem short of death in a few areas and just do not look like the complete package that can really stand up to the other top sides and get the edge over them over 30 games. Still, this remains one of the best sides in the division and qualification for Europe is again a minimum requisite for them.