Brann

Brann were ever so close to breaking the Bodø/Glimt hegemony last season in what was a really impressive campaign from them, going all the way until the end before a return of one point from the last two games saw them lose out to the champions. It was still a remarkable campaign that will be cherished for a long time by the supporters as this team continued their recent growth and definitely punched above their weight. Now, however, it feels like there will be a bit of a reset and a correction in that recent upward momentum for the Bergen side as their highly impressive coach, Eirik Horneland, made the jump to a top league to take over Saint-Etienne. he leaves a massive hole that will be certainly near-impossible to feel given that he was the main instigator of their renaissance in the last few years. Freyr Alexandrensson, formerly of Danish side Lyngby and Kortrijk from Belgium, has been given the job of a manager and he faces a massive task in trying to live up to the exploits that preceded him. He is also a primarily 3-5-2 manager and that will be a major factor for a squad has been playing 4-3-3 for a while now and is their default system. The squad has not been hollowed out despite the big interest in some player but they still waved goodby to Ole Blomberg, who was vital down the wing. Apart from that, the key players are still around and the coach will rely on the experience and drive of the likes of Bard Finne, Felix Horn Myhre, Ulrik Mathisen and Frederik Knudsen to carry the squad in what could be a turbulent opening period. Mads Hansen is the one new addition that could be quite an impactful one this season, coming from Nordsjaelland in Denmark, but it overall has been quite a quiet transfer window. As of now, there are still far too many questions around the new manager and the fit with the club and it is hard to see this Brann side being so high up the standings as they were in the past couple of years and consolidation in upper mid-table should be a more realistic objective.