Football Season Guide

Mariehamn had a difficult 2023. The Islanders usually play solid football at home where they tend to capitalise on the tough trips all their visitors need to embark on to reach the remote islands. However, in 2023 the home form was poor. Mariehamn spent more than half of the season in last place. Eventually things improved in the autumn and the Islanders did just about enough in the play-offs to finish eleventh. They convincingly won their survival play-off against Gnistan after that and stayed up. The owner of the 2016 champions had seen enough and he opted to gut out the team and start over in the winter. Mariehamn parted ways with 16 players in the off-season that included practically their main starting XI from last year. There was also a change at the helm. For the start of 2024 Portuguese specialist Bruno Romao will be in charge. Romao’s first task was to rebuild the squad from scratch. Mariehamn have a new look and new tactics this season as a result. Romao prefers possession-based football. This is why he added the solid on the ball midfielders Nurmi, Ojala and Dahlstrom to the ranks. There is the promise for more goals too. Larsson is a striker that can thrive in this league and the Swedish forward is expected to be Mariehman’s top goalscorer in 2024. New wingers Reid and Cardoso have lots of quality and they could be influential. The main issues seem to be in the defence where there are still too many unknowns. Also, there are only 2 typical full-backs in the squad right now. Adding a free agent or two in that position soon is likely. Mariehamn were lucky to survive last season so such a drastic avalanche of changes might be a good thing for the Islanders. Can they enjoy much calmer 2024?