Football Season Guide

Sarpsborg finished last season as one of the hottest teams in the division after a run of ten games without a loss that ultimately saw them finish safe in mid-table, having looked in grave danger of relegation back in August. The club management were thus rewarded for sticking with Steffen Billborn amidst lots of doubts and expectations that he will be fired and the hopes now are that the Blues from the outskirts of Oslo build on and start threatening the teams in the top six on more consistent basis. The club bid goodbye to two of their most influential and important players in Tobias Heintz and Anton Saletros, who both moved abroad, while veterans Guilermo Molins and Jurgen Horn are not part of the squad too. Sarpsborg bagged a good player in Ramon Pascal Lundqvist to be the new midfield orchestrator while Jeppe Andersen should provide good protection for him as a defensive midfielder. The main worry for the fans ahead of the start of the new season is the lack of a genuinely reliable goalscorer as Kristian Opseth seems like he will be the one expected to carry the line early in the campaign, having scored a grand total of seven goals in the past two seasons. Stefan Skalevik is the other alternative but he had hardly been prolific too and it may well turn out to be quite an issue for Billborn as the season goes on. That said, the team looks very strong in midfield and still has quite a lot of options in the wide areas and defence to sustain a good level of performances and should be able to hang around the top half of the standings for the most part.