Football Season Guide

Sirius parted ways with their manager for 8 years Kim Bergstrand in winter (left to take charge of Djurgarden) and as his replacement inexperienced Henrik Rydstrom was appointed. The new manager has only 6 months experience as head coach of senior squad (he was Kalmar’s U19 and U21 manager for 4 of last 5 seasons). The new boss seems to be favouring 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-1-1 shapes in pre-season, but more clarity about the system Sirius will use will be given in first few matches. Other major even of the winter was the departure of the team’s captain and club record goalscorer Ogbu, which with no new centre forwards signed exposes the front line badly. Currently Jonas Lindberg is the only typical striker in the ranks, which means that hugely important inner midfielder Haglund will be used a lot as target man. He helped a lot with his goals last season, but still he is not a natural forward. Will have to rely a lot on the wide areas as most of their aggressive players operate there. Also 3 of the 4 newly signed players are operating in those positions (1 full-back and 2 wide midfielders). Ahman-Persson will be the most important figure in defence, with the 32-year-old veteran performing very well after signing last summer. However, as it was evident in 2018 those around him were not very good help and Sirius struggled at the back on many occasions.