betprepare.com

Savehof are left without key players in the defense

The tall players Nielsen, Tonnesen and Bliznac left the away team, together with the first goalkeeper Forsberg. Skovde reinforced themselves with Kallman and Svensson but at the start they already have problems with injuries

Last year already announced Savehof might see the end of their dominance, and that is even more likely this year. The away team lost it's main structure, four players of the first lineup left. First of them is the goalkeeper Forsberg, a player who brought wins for Savehof with his saves on several occasion in the Champions League and he was one of the best in the national championship as well.

 - My patience payed off, the development went exactly according to my plan. Last season I got less time in play but now I have a great responsibility on me - said Johannesson who will now be the first goalkeeper of Savehof.

He is a Swedish U21 team player who played very well in the World Championship tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina this summer but last season he didn't stand out much and it is questionable whether he can play as good as Forsberg did. Furthermore, the club lost their first pivot Nielsen, one of the players who was of great help to Forsberg in the defense, but who also caused a lot of problems to the opponents in the offense as well because of his size. The club is left without two more key shooters - left back Bliznac and right back Tonnesen, both of them over 2 meters tall and they played halfs in the defense and blocked a lot of shots last season.

 - We brought in several young players and we need more time to consolidate completely - admitted the away team goalkeeper only a day before the first match.

One of the new players is the pivot Ysander who showed great performance in the preparations, mainly in the offense. It is a pivot who is quite different from Nielsen, of a somewhat lower balance and very agile. Thynell is also here, the top scorer for Malmo last season, who sometimes managed to score everything in periods of 10-15 minutes per game and can be a match-killer and in addition to all them three more U19 Swedish players arrived - it si clear that Savehof plans for long-running schemes at this moment.

Skovde had a very opposite transfer situation - fewer but better for this season already. From Atletico Madrid came the excellent left wing Jonas Kallman while on the right back position Cederholm will be substituted by Svensson who is coming home after a tour through Denmark and Germany (Lubbecke). The latter one showed himself to be a big reinforcement from the first preparation match. He often scored around 10 goals in the preparations and Kallman is playing better and better too.

 - We can be satisfied, our performance is becoming better - said the player/coach Arrhenius after the last preparation match, and Kallman agreed:

 - In the first stages we played well for maybe 5 to 10 minutes but now we have far longer periods of good performance.

They played against the second league team Lindesberg and won 38-27. From the score it is clear that the new coach Johansson didn't change much about the style of playing. What's more, despite 38 scored goals, it was the offense that the experts focused their attention to after the match was over.

 - We missed too many counterattacks in the first half - criticized Arrhenius.

A good defense together with fast counterattacks is the trademark of Skovde in the Swedish league and with the changes at the headquarters of Savehof they could have a big role when it comes to the winner - the away team have only Thynell left of the usual shooters and it will be difficult to break through the opponents that way. Savehof will want to make as much clear situations for the wings as possible, as they remained the same (Ottoson, Friden) as the last season.

 - Savehof made some changes but we don't bother too much with that. The only thing we know is that we feel well opening the season at home against them and we want to be even faster than we were today - added Arrhenius.

Because of the profile change of the team it is possible that Savehof wishes such a development of events. To their advantage goes the fact that the hosts have injury problems already at the start of the season. The first middle back Lake has problems with the groin, the second middle back Samuelsson has problems with thumb ligaments, Kallman's younger brother (second left back) has problems with hematomas while the first left back Warvne suffered a stress fracture.

 - He had gone through some tests, but we still don't know what will happen with him - revealed Arrhenius and added about the injuries of Lake and Kallman:

 - They warmed up already against LIF.

According to that, they should appear, while it is still not known about Warvne and Samuelsson. Despite that, the fact is that a reinforced Skovde goes to win in the opening of the season in front of their own crowd against one of the disliked rivals.

When a team play a blinder, score 38 goals, moan about their weak counterattacks and want and even faster tempo at the opening of the season then you know how offensively orientated they are. That is exactly the case with Skovde, who added left wingman Kallman (from Atletico Madrid) and right backcourt Kristian Svensson (Lubbecke) against Savehof, who are a completely different team than last year.
The away team lost a lot in defence, they lost their first goalkeeper Forsberg, frist pivot Nielsen who was also the key man in defence and Tonnesen and Bliznac who were the main scorers and also very important half players. The absence of the latter two is a twofold problem: they left a hole in the defence, and also Savehod lost two great scorers. It is known that Skovde is the best counterattacking team in the league. Thynnell replaced Bliznac, but it will be a tougher task on the right side. Savehof brough younger and faster players to replace the bigger ones that left. It is evident that they are planning for the future, and that they want to speed up their game. Speed and and not playing like a team don't go together well, and first goalkeeper Johannesson has admitted a day before the match that they are not playing as a team yet. Against Skovde they will probably play a 5-1 with Kallman in front, which could lead to a lot of mistakes and simple goals for the home team.Skovde has in the last four games scored over 30 goals, scored 38 against the reigning champion Drott and I dont' think that the defensively weaker Savehof will prevent the home team from going over the margin. I think that they will also play in the higher tempo because they have a young team, so the total over doesn't seem like a bad bet.