Football Season Guide

Viking had a real roller coaster of a season as they were on a stunning high for long stretches of it and a run of 13 straight wins even had them leading the table going to the final half a dozen of games of the campaign. But then came the massive crash as a dreadful run not only saw them lose out to Bodø/Glimt in the title tussle but also end up outside of the European places, which comes as a real kick in the teeth after doing so well for so long. Now Bjarte Aarsheim and his squad look to regroup and come again as a force to be reckoned with at the top of the standings again. Still, they have to reckon with the loss of two pivotal players from last season's team as Markus Solbakken and David Brekalo are headed for new adventures abroad. The Viking squad is pretty good in terms of depth and in Djibril Diaw and Joe Bell there are good alternatives who should make sure that the overall level does not drop too much. Shayn Pattynyama is the other starter who is not around any more and left-back is one of the areas where Viking do look thin, with Joist Urbancic now expected to step up as a replacement while barely playing a part last year. The team should be quite lively in attack again with the mercurial Zlatwko Tripic showing no signs of decline just yet and Sander Svendsen and Lars Jorgen Salvesen quite useful in the final third as well. This is still one of the better squads in the division and they have every chance to be among the top four or five sides but it will depend of the key players staying fit and finding form and momentum from early on.