In the 2020s, the Swedish Allsvenskan has been very competitive overall, but in the end, the result stayed the same for most years.
Over the last couple of years, Malmö FF have won four out of five Swedish top-flight titles, with only BK Häcken being able to win one in between so far this decade.
Things have changed drastically this season, however, with Malmö currently sitting in fourth place, 10 points behind the current league leaders, Mjällby AIF.
MAIF have played in the lower leagues of Swedish football for most of their history.
The club got promoted to the Allsvenskan for the first time in 2010 and stayed there for five years before getting relegated back to the Superettan five years later.
From then on, things quickly went awry.
In their first season back in the second tier, MAIF got relegated straight to the third division, had huge financial troubles, and nearly had to file for bankruptcy.
However, they turned things around and got promoted back to the Superettan in 2019.
They instantly won the league in 2020 and got back to the Allsvenskan for the second time in the clubs history.
MAIF stayed in the lower midfield of the league for the first couple of years but developed nicely under manager Anders Torstensson in his second stint at the club.
He finished fifth in the 2024 season and is currently leading the league by four points after 19 games in the 2025 season.
In this tactical analysis, we will examine the MAIF style of play under Anders Torstensson tactics, how they are dominating the league, and their near future, including whether the small club has the chance to actually win their first-ever piece of silverware this season.
Mjällby Bravery Through The Centre
The first thing I want to examine in this article isn’t necessarily a tactical issue like we usually do on this site, but rather something that could be described as the mentality or culture that the Torstensson team currently possesses.
MAIF is a very resilient team.
They look very prepared for every match and every situation.
They know exactly what they are doing, and that gives them some swagger to find solutions even under pressure or in tight situations.
Usually, Torstensson’s men line up in a 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 formation, and they fluently interchange these formations during games.
This puts a lot of pressure on the wings, but they are still able to play liquid football right through the heart of the pitch, the centre.
MAIF usually play through their wings quite a lot.
They did that at the start of the season, but teams obviously started to adapt to that.
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