Johan Bångsbo has recently made an impact in the 2022 Allsvenskan.
After a period of being sat on the bench waiting for his chance, the youngster was given the opportunity by manager Mikael Stahre.
Now he has accumulated nine consecutive games as a starter for IFK Göteborg’s first team.
His solidity and talent have made him one of the best and most regular players in his team, and also one of the most promising centre-backs in the league.
The Allsvenskan has recently gained recognition for being a highly interesting and exciting league to find youngsters or players in every position, with technique and intelligence on the field, and so Johan is one of them.
This tactical analysis and scout report piece will take an in-depth look at the strengths that Johan Bångsbo style of play possesses, and how he has made his way to becoming probably, the best young centre-back in the competition.
Johan Bångsbo Player profile
Born in Sweden in 2003, Johan is a product of the IFK Göteborg academy.
A left-footed centre-back, standing at 6’3 “tall, he has already made 12 appearances as a professional footballer, registering over 1,000 minutes in his first season, winning the coach’s confidence after two starts on the team.
He has also made his debut with the Sweden U-19 national team.
Johan Bångsbo Defending the box
In IFK Gothenburg’s tactics, he’s located on the left side of the defence.
The 19-year-old plays typically on a back-four, alongside Carl Johansson who deploys as the right-centre-back.
Johan demonstrates an excellent technique for defending in every area of the pitch.
However, one of Bångsbo’s keys to his game is his defensive awareness inside the box, and how he uses his body to orientate players to make a bad shot or to create a turnover.
Johan is a bright and tough player to beat when in the penalty box.
His physicality and mental agility greatly assist his team in blocking shots or intercepting dangerous passes approaching the six-yard box.
In the picture below we can see Bångsbo facing a transition where the winger is trying to find a teammate in a dangerous position inside the penalty area.
As you can see, he has already scanned the area beside him, knowing that there aren’t any rivals coming to threaten him, and then maintains a good position to block a possible pass or shot.
The action ends in a shot from that distance, saved by the goalkeeper.
Also considering his height, he’s a very hard player to beat with crosses to the penalty area.
He has the concentration and technique to clear the ball every time he’s needed against this kind of delivery.
Johan knows where to clear it and how.
He doesn’t want to leave a rebound in front of his teammates or goalkeepers, so he always tries to head the ball to his sides, corner or outside the area.
He’s a very disciplined player.
The timing to tackle and the way he uses the exact power needed to dispose of a player inside the box make him an impeccable defender, and he rarely makes a dangerous foul that could compromise his team and lead to conceding a goal.
Johan is scanning every time he’s forced to get into the box.
That’s why he’s such an interesting player, because of the maturity he shows on the pitch with his age.
He knows that he has to watch every option that are making movements in the box, doing it very quick not to lose concentration on the next step of his opponent.
A rival player rarely anticipates the Swede to make a shot in front of him.
He’s astute to know how much space between the lines he has to leave, and when to go to try to steal the ball or make a clearance.
In the example above, we see the 19-year-old in a similar situation, but this time the winger is wide open, looking for a cross into the box.
He has one forward at his back but another time we see him scanning all the options.
The cross is executed, and thanks to his good positioning, leaving the exact space between the forward and his full-back that was trying to close down the delivery.
He intercepts the low-cross and clears the ball out.
Here, we see another situation inside the box, but this time he had to jump out of his line because the full-back was dribbled past.
He does it well, covering the runs in behind him and intercepting the upcoming cross from the winger, this time sending it to a corner kick.
Johan Bångsbo Defending on a high block
Modern football has evolved to teams playing with a high defensive line.
This involves pressing very high on the pitch and accumulating more players in the attacking phase.
IFK Göteborg tries to be a possession-based side that puts their lines high on the pitch.
This can be beneficial for what we mentioned earlier: pressure and more players to attack, as well as being far from their goal kick. However, being too high on the pitch can be risky if you have defenders who aren’t quick enough to make the return in transitions.
The example below shows the first part of an incredible action, that was started very close to the middle of the pitch.
The winger received a ball in an open space to roam freely against the goalkeeper, with numerical and positional superiority, with a teammate making a run to the box.
Johan was in front of these two, so he decided to shadow the option behind him and orientate the winger wide, with the help of his full-back too.
He ended the action perfectly: The full-back reached the winger, but the opponent was beating him in a very physical one-on-one duel.
Johan accelarated his run and went to make a glorious slide tackle to block the shot and send it to a corner kick.
To succeed as a CB in modern football you have to be proactive, and Johan Bångsbo meets the requirements.
He knows when and where he has to jump from his line to tackle some players or intercept passes.
When playing in a high line, rival teams try to beat centre-backs with long balls, to make quick transitions with players attacking their backs.
So when Johan is forced into an aerial battle after a long ball from the opponents, he does not win too many of them.
Even with his height, Johan is a bit slow to react, and rivals typically jump over him first and win the duel.
But when he’s not under pressure, he does it very relaxed and almost every time finds a teammate after the clearance.
Below, it’s an action that effectively describes what we are explaining about his aerial duels.
When he’s not under pressure and has time to solve, as shown in the picture under the text, he does it really well.
Nevertheless, when the attackers go and fight him up there, he loses.
Players often make runs in-behind the defence to catch them in a hazardous situation, where they have to face 1v1 situations.
Johan does really well closing down opponents in this kind of position because he has the ability to time his run to close the pass beside him and then make a quick stride to tackle the opponent.
Above, we see a 1v1 situation where he was forced to after a long ball from the opponent’s defenders.
The forward was looking to get the ball and caught IFK Goteborg in a risky situation, but Bangsbo was clever and more agile to recover the ball.
Again, he showed his ability to play on a high block.
Johan is also very committed to covering his teammates, especially his full-backs, when they move up to join the attack. He goes and offers coverage for them, orientating the winger to the sideline, where they had to face a tight space situation.
Meanwhile, Bångsbo waited for his full-back to appear.
The picture below doesn’t represent a high block situation at all, but it shows how he can go without any problem and offer coverage to his full-back, who is running back from attack to defence.
On this occasion, Johan orientated the forward to the sideline, where he didn’t solve the tight-space situation against him and lost the ball to a throw-in for IFK Goteborg.
Johan Bångsbo On-the-ball qualities
In possession, Johan is a safe option from the back for his team.
Technical and left-footed, he acts great under pressure and has the ability to find new angles making turns or progressive runs to open lanes and see better options to connect with.
Usually, he tends to pass it to his left-back, who goes on to a very high position on the field and the centre-back.
Also, the 19-year-old possesses the technique to realize long passes, diagonally changing the side of the game, or to his winger.
Occasionally, Johan breaks lines through the middle of the park trying to find teammates that appear in the half-space.
Although the team doesn’t tend to place players in central areas or wide areas, when the time is right and someone is asking for the ball in the half-spaces or in the middle, he looks to get the ball there.
Anyway, something he needs to improve is being more aggressive with his distribution decisions, as he tends to be overly basic with some of his passes during the game.
Creating new passing angles is one of the best things he has when on the ball.
Below Johan is orientated to the right side of the pitch, but he quickly turns his body to the left, makes a progressive run to the zone pointed out and then looks to connect with his forward with a diagonal ball.
Here we see an example of how he executes good through-balls when the opportunity occurs, as the left-centre-midfielder makes a run to get away from his marker and be found freely in the half-space, thanks to a good pass from Bångsbo, that he executes without a problem with his weak foot, and being under pressure.
Another time, we find out that Johan is excellent and effective when he dares to find a teammate in the high lanes of the pitch.
In the picture below, he again makes a progressive run to create a new passing angle, finds the hole through the lines, and executes it well.
Finally, we see another moment where he was brave to make progress and not to pass it to the full-back or his centre-back partner.
The forward recognizes the free space, and points Johan where he wants the ball.
He makes the run and the 19-year-old performs a brilliant pass.
Johan Bångsbo Weaknesses
As told before, Johan needs to be more agile to win aerial battles against strikers.
Usually, you can see the forwards from the rival team go and pin him up because they react faster and jump earlier than him, losing these aerial duels.
Considering his height, this shouldn’t be a weakness in his game.
He’s only 19 years old, so with more experience on the field, he will surely improve in this kind of situation.
In possession, we explain that he needs to be more aggressive and try to find teammates with vertical passes that could break up the lines of pressure from the opponents.
Even though he’s very good and secure with the ball, he needs to be more frequent with these through balls that normally result in great executions.
When he does it, he adds a great item to his playing style.
In modern football, everybody loves a centre-back finding teammates in dangerous areas from the back.
Finally, Johan is not the quickest player in transition but he compensates for this weakness with great timing and power to beat attackers and lay them down.
Conclusion
Johan Bångsbo is a top talent growing day by day in his mother country, Sweden.
As mentioned at the start of this analysis, the Allsvenskan is becoming a league where teams typically go to find quality talent for their squads, and we believe the 19-year-old will be one of these signings in the future.
Recently we have seen Isak Hien, the former Djurgarden centre-back, being sold to Hellas Verona in Italy.
At 23, Isak has shown the world of football that the Swedish League is one to watch very closely.
With his height, his physicality, his intelligence, his distribution getting better and braver every match, and his defending skills that are on the very top of his team, Johan is clearly going to get things going on a big stage in the upcoming years.
He has even been linked already with Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, by some Swedish outlets, also saying that his call to the National Team is coming.
IFK Goteborg have a gem in their hands.
