Football Season Guide

Ilves flirted with danger all season in 2023 but they found enough consistency in the play-offs to survive. Not just that but the Lynxes actually qualified for Europe after reaching the Finnish Cup final. Ilves had only 4 wins during the regular season last year. They also had the weakest attack in Veikkausliiga – 20 goals in 22 matches. These serious issues up front where the main reason why Ilves felt they need to change managers in the winter. Joonas Rantanen is now in charge. He’s not very experienced but still has over 10 years in different roles for Veikkausliiga teams. It has been a relatively quiet winter for Ilves in terms of transfer activity. N’Diaye, Moussa and Parfitt were the only regular starters to leave, with the last 2 of them starting to lose their starting roles even before last season was over. Ilves added 2 quality midfielders from KuPS. Veteli could prove to be the steal of the winter. He was hugely impressive in 2022 but spent the entire last season out injured. If he gets healthy now and shows the same promise as 2 years ago he could be Ilves’s trump card. The main concerns remain in attack. Changes were needed and pretty much all the wingers are new now. That said the only typical centre forward in the team is veteran Riski, who hardly got any use in 2 consecutive years at HJK. Can he remember how to be key figure is yet to be seen.