Bröndby’s Lesson in Player Recruitment: The power of patience in crafting a winning team – data analysis

Bröndby IF have surprised many in the Danish Superliga this season and currently sit second with 40 points from 19 matches, two behind leaders FC Midtjylland, who have played a game more. This has been a tremendous improvement by the team so far, having finished sixth last season with just 44 points from 32 matches (regular season and championship round), 15 adrift of eventual winners FC Copenhagen.

Part of the reason for their title charge after a midtable finish last season has been an improved defence, which is backed by the data. Bröndbys backline is the best in the league, conceding just 17 goals in 19 matches. Their attack has improved substantially as well, and theyre averaging almost two goals a game with 37 so far, only 11 behind their total from last season.

Much of this has been due to internal improvement within the squad. Jesper Sørensen took over as manager in January 2023 and got them seven wins and two draws in 15 matches during the latter stages of last season. After a full pre-season with the squad, Sørensen seems to have got them playing their best football, and this has paid dividends on the pitch.

One aspect that brought Bröndby, who are looking to win their first Superliga title since the 2020/21 season, was the delayed nature of their summer transfer business. They signed no players in June, with a flurry of arrivals in July and August. A similar pattern followed this past winter transfer window as well.

When asked about it in an interview back in August, their sporting director, Carsten V. Jensen, spoke to BOLD about the same and said:

Of course, you want to bring in a player early and have a squad ready early, but the most important thing is that they are the right players. Bröndby are not first-choice, and then you have to wait [for] the time it takes to get to where we can shoot. (translated from Danish to English)

While there is still time until the end of the season, this data analysis article aims to provide an analysis of the signings statistics in granular detail and weigh up how they have contributed to the teams charge to the top of the Superliga.

Who were Bröndbys summer and winter arrivals?

Bröndby had a flurry of summer activity, with a focus on bringing in young players. Right-back Jacob Rasmussen, signed from Fiorentina, was one of their first arrivals, with Transfermarkt stating that he joined on July 14. The 26-year-old was their only signing in July.

Rasmussen was followed by 19-year-old Mateusz Kowalczyk, who joined from LKS Lodz on August 2. Yuito Suzuki, 21, then arrived from J-League outfit Shimizu S-Pulse on August 11. He was followed by 20-year-old forward Justin Che on August 17, 26-year-old goalkeeper Patrick Pentz, loaned in from Bayer Leverkusen on August 18, and 20-year-old Emmanuel Yeboah, signed from CFR Cluj a day later. Veteran right-back Sean Klaiber, 29, was their final arrival of the summer transfer window on September 1, joining from FC Utrecht.

In the winter transfer window, Bröndby made two signings: Jordi Vanlerberghe, 27, from KV Mechelen on January 29 and Filip Bundgaard, 19, from Randers FC on February 1.

As suggested earlier, this follows a trend of the club bringing in players who could help them immediately but also with an eye on the future, as the mean age of these eight signings was only 23.

Only four of these nine players have started a game for Bröndby this season. Che was loaned out to ADO Den Haag almost immediately after his arrival, while Vanlerberghe is currently injured, and Bundgaard has come off the bench twice in the Superliga.

Yeboah played once as a substitute in the Oddset Pokalen, but is yet to receive a league minute despite making the bench thrice. He has primarily represented their youth team. That is also the case for Kowalczyk, though he did receive a minute off the bench in the Superliga and came on as a substitute in two cup games. He has mostly played for Bröndbys reserves and their U19 outfit.

How have Bröndbys signings contributed to the team this season?

That visual leads us nicely into this section, evaluating the impact of these new arrivals on Bröndbys fortunes. As the graph below also shows, four of the summer arrivals have come in and established themselves as starters for the team despite not having the benefit of a pre-season with them. For goalkeeper Pentz, it took all of 10 days between his date of arrival and first start, 16 days for Klaiber and 23 for Rasmussen. Only Suzuki had to bide his time, with 47 days separating his arrival and first start for the team.

The Japanese player has also started just 42.1% of Bröndbys matches this season, compared to 87.5% for Klaiber, 89.5% for Pentz and 90.9% for Rasmussen.