Football Season Guide

HamKam were one of the poor teams for majority of the season last year and for a fair while it seemed like they are set for a tussle to avoid the bottom three come the final few weeks. They changed coach mid-season and new man, Thomas Myhre, seemed to be struggling initially to get a tune out of the squad. But he found his feet in the final third of the season and five wins in the final eight games of the season propelled them to safety without that much trouble. Myhre managed to unlock a few players who were struggling for form prior to that but it is hard too pinpoint what really clicked and changed the trajectory of this team apart from just everyone locking in. They now prepare for a fourth consecutive season among the elite of the country and will be hoping to finally do something more than just surviving and try troubling a bit more the top-half of the standings. Myhre seems to have a decent squad at his disposal and will hope that the signings that have been over the winter lift the overall level of the squad and give them the shape of a team that is ready to make the step up. Andres Trondsen is easily the most interesting and notable addition, a quality and experienced player who may have struggled with injuries recently but is still a solid player for this level and will be a definitely influence and contributor if he stays fit. The main worry for Myhre at the moment must be who is going to get the goals as Kristian Lien and Moses Mawa are both not around anymore and neither of them has been properly replaced. That puts an awful lot of expectations and pressure on Julian Gonstad, who looked like he stepped up late last season and got some goals, but will not have to carry the load full-time and that is a different task for a 20-year-old player. Frederik Sjølstad, Vidar Jonsson and Marcus Sandberg are still around and provide a backbone to the team that will be make them hard to beat but at the moment there is dearth of creativity and goalscoring quality in the squad and that puts a hard ceiling on this squad to lower mid-table.