IFK Goteborg vs Ostersunds FK
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Today’s free tip is in the Swedish Allsvenskan where IFK Goteborg entertain Ostersunds FK.
The hosts are the more notable team in Sweden. They’ve got one hell of a prestigious past, and they’re supposed to win games of this nature. Truth be told, though, this isn’t a good team anymore. There are worse teams in the Allsvenskan so relegation doesn’t enter the equation but I still think that they’re more likely to be dragged into a relegation battle than they are into a battle for a European place.
Debate has raged in Swedish media as to whether IFK Goteborg fans expect too much of their team nowadays, purely based upon their glorious sides of the past. The IFK Goteborg fans I’ve seen posting on Twitter are saying that they’re disappointed in the board of the club, not the players they’ve got, which is fair enough. The players they’ve got are the right players to get them to where they currently are in the table so nobody can really complain at IFK Goteborg being where they are. The board could have – and should have – done more though. This isn’t a poor team, and they’ve made some lucrative sales over the years so where has that money gone?
I mean, Dahlberg alone earned them 4 million euros. What about Ankersen, Albaek, Bjarsmyr, Augustinsson, Vibe, and Hysen? IFK Goteborg never seem to spend much money despite losing good players so I can empathise with the fans’ frustrations. The bottom line here is that Tobias Hysen, at thirty-six years of age, is still their best player. There’s a bit of promise from Sakor and Kharaishvili but Hysen is the only one with a consistent level of class – and he’s absent for tonight’s game!
To me, IFK Goteborg look slow, and lacking in penetration. They’re lacking in natural goal-scorers too. They’re not that bad defensively but they seem it, primarily because they’re forced into committing more men forward than usual in a bid to actually try and score goals. There’s the potential for that to happen here but I am not convinced that they’ll see enough of the ball for it to happen. IFK Goteborg basically look very plain, and I find it really hard to imagine that loaning a player from Hammarby – who weren’t even an Allsvenskan club a few years back – is going to save their season, nor is it going to inspire their fans to get back on board. There’s a real feeling of disdain at IFK Goteborg at the moment, basically, and if I trusted Ostersunds FK more, I might have even considered the away win with draw no bet.
The reason I don’t trust the visitors more right now is because they’ve made too many changes lately. I still think they’ve put in some excellent displays recently, mind you. This team has had to play some seriously intelligent football to win in Boras and when hosting Kalmar FF, two of the better tactical sides in the Allsvenskan this season, but they’ve managed it. If they approach tonight’s game similarly, I don’t see why they’d fail to pick up any points.
I stand by what I said above, though – too many changes make me uneasy when it comes to backing the visitors. Losing their boss, Potter, wasn’t ideal, but his replacement, Burchnall, has done really well so far. They also lost key players like Sema, Papagiannopoulos, and Nouri. Hell, even Gero played a part too, and I’m astounded that they’ve managed to keep hold of Ghoddos. That’s a lot of players to lose in a relatively short space of time, so despite keeping Hopcutt, Edwards, and Islamovic, I have less trust for the visitors than I used to have, at least for big games, which this technically is.
I don’t doubt that Ostersunds FK are the better side nowadays but this relentless selling of theirs will catch up with them, sooner or later, and it may well happen tonight. That uncertainty is why I am not going near the 1×2 market. However, the tactical brilliance of Ostersunds FK, the fact that they’ve still got deadly Ghoddos in attack, and their ability to stifle teams makes me believe that they’ll run the show against Hysen-less IFK Goteborg tonight, and that should lead to an under 2.5 goals game, hence the tip. Their last two visits to face IFK Goteborg have gone under 2.5 goals too.
Verdict: Under 2.5 goals at 17/20.
Monday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Argentinian Superliga:
Estudiantes de la Plata vs Boca Juniors
San Martin Tucuman vs Union de Santa Fe
Brazilian Serie A:
Vasco da Gama vs Ceara
Bulgarian A PFG:
Vereya vs Vitosha Bistritsa
Czech Republic HET Liga:
Sigma Olomouc vs Banik Ostrava
Danish Superligaen:
AC Horsens vs Aalborg BK
English Premier League:
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
FC Lahti vs RoPS Rovaniemi
SJK vs Ilves
Finnish Ykkonen:
KTP vs KPV Kokkola
German DFB Pokal:
Paderborn 07 vs Ingolstadt
Energie Cottbus vs SC Freiburg
Eintracht Braunschweig vs Hertha Berlin
Greuther Furth vs Bv09 Borussia Dortmund
Icelandic Pepsideild:
Fjolnir Reykjavik vs Vikingur Reykjavik
Breidablik Kopavogur vs Valur Reykjavik
Italian Serie A:
Atalanta Bergamo vs Frosinone
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Bodo/Glimt vs Odd
Portuguese Liga 1:
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Feirense
Russian Premier League:
Dinamo Moscow vs FK Ufa
Spanish Primera Liga:
Valencia CF vs Atletico Madrid
Athletic Club de Bilbao vs Leganes
Swedish Allsvenskan:
Hammarby vs Orebro
IFK Goteborg vs Ostersunds FK
Turkish Super Lig:
Kasimpasa vs Istanbul BB
Enjoy your free betting tips!