Football Season Guide

For long periods last season looked like the only team challenging Malmo for the title, but in the end the small squad was caught up by crucial injuries and Djurgardens even dropped to third place in the final standings. This term things are likely to be even more difficult for Djurgardens as they lost their two key players during the winter months, captain Kallstrom retired while the crucial striker Eriksson joined the MLS, plus three other regular starters departed and this will see at least five new names used regularly from the off in 2018. The difficult financial situation of the club didn’t allow coach Melkemichel to sign quality replacements and especially up front Djurgardens don’t look very rich on options. Newcomer Kozica is expected to be starting a lot in attack, but all other centre forward options are very young and inexperienced. Still the 22-year-old Zimbabwean Kadewere showed promise in 2017 and he might be one to watch. Things in midfield don’t seem to be much better after Kallstrom and Hansson left, while the new regular left-back of the team seems to be the 22-year-old Augustinsson. This will be his first major season at senior level and again he is untested over the length of an entire campaign. Djurgardens will continue being a threat from set pieces though with their two centre-backs Olsson and Une Larsson registering the most amount of headers on target between them last season, this compared to all other defensive pairs in Allsvenskan. All indications are that this will be a year for rebuilding for Djurgardens and even if Melkemichel makes more new signings they are expected to be young players and with limited senior experience.