Fredrik Holmberg Tactics At GAIS 2024/2025 – Three Years Of Tactical Transformation

Few clubs across Europe — and, indeed, all of world football — have had as much of an astronomical rise as Göteborgs Atlet- och Idrottssällskap (GAIS) over the past few seasons.

A couple of years ago, GAIS were toiling away in Sweden’s third tier, a decade removed from their last appearance in Allsvenskan.

They had spent the vast majority of that 10-year period in Superettan, the nation’s second tier.

They had just been relegated from Superettan when their previous assistant, Fredrik Holmberg, took over as manager, charged with helping Makrillarna bounce back.

This was Holmberg’s second job in senior football management.

His only previous experience came with Onsala BK, whom he led from Sweden’s fifth tier to the fourth tier.

Putting Holmberg in the managerial hot seat was a bold move from the team and Sporting Director Niklas Karlström, who had only been at the club himself for a little over a year when he appointed Holmberg as manager in November 2021.

His faith in the then-relatively inexperienced coach has been repaid tenfold since he made that call.

Holmberg has led GAIS to promotion not only once but twice, bringing them back to the pinnacle of Swedish football for the first time since 2012 this year.

Far from satisfied with just reaching Allsvenskan, GAIS has been giving an incredibly good account of themselves in the top flight this term; at the time of writing this piece, they sit fourth—just one point off Hammarby in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualification places.

Our tactical analysis will provide some insight into Holmberg’s winning tactics at Gamla Ullevi.

The analysis will look at how the 44-year-old coach has moulded GAIS in his image over the past few years, clearly defining how he’s inspired a complete tactical turnaround for the club that had undoubtedly been heading in the wrong direction prior to his tenure as boss.

Fredrik Holmberg Tactics & Style Of Play

According to Capology, GAIS are competing with the sixth-lowest wage bill in Allsvenskan this season, highlighting just how well they’re doing to be sitting in fourth place at this stage of the campaign.

One standout statistic about Holmberg’s side this term is that they’ve got the fourth-best defensive record in Sweden’s top flight (27 goals conceded) at this point in the season.

They’re overperforming on their expected goals against (xGA), which currently sits at 33.63 — placing them ninth out of Allsvenskan’s 16 teams for that particular metric.

They largely have goalkeeper Mergim Krasniqi to thank for their xGA overperformance, as he has prevented 4.65 goals based on xG faced this term.

GAIS’s defensive record is one of the main elements of its performance, which has helped it earn the number of points it has earned so far this season.

Their goalscoring record of 28 puts them 12th in the league in terms of putting the ball in the opponent’s net.

Stylistically, GAIS have evolved year on year under Holmberg as they’ve climbed the Swedish football ladder in some respects.

Naturally, as the competition has progressively increased in standard, Holmberg’s side has had to adapt to playing without the ball more and more.

This season, they have the third-lowest average possession percentage in their division, at 43.8%.

They don’t tend to play many passes on average per game this term but have in previous campaigns under Holmberg—another way in which the team has had to change up its style to some extent in 2024 to cope with the quality of Allsvenskan.

However, some stylistic aspects of Makrillarna have remained consistent throughout Holmberg’s tenure as manager, including their tendency to attack via the wings inside the final third and to be extremely ‘dribble-heavy’ in their offensive game.

Their wingers and central midfielders usually rank highly compared to other players in their division who play at the same position; this has remained the case in 2024.

Similarly, though their pressing intensity will differ from opponent to opponent in some manner, they don’t tend to sit off a lot.

They maintain a certain level of aggression in their out-of-possession game, which has been a key characteristic of Holmberg’s GAIS since taking charge in the third tier.

GAIS Out Of Possession Tactical Analysis

With all of that said, it’s clear that GAIS’ out-of-possession performance has been the most interesting aspect of their game from a tactical perspective this season and where they’ve really managed to impress on the Allsvenskan stage.

So, what is Holmberg’s side doing without the ball?

Since taking charge, Holmberg has consistently lined his team up in a 4-3-3 shape.

Figure 1 shows how GAIS (pink) line up when defending in a mid-block — the phase they’ll most often find themselves defending in, especially against stronger opposition when they’ll sit off a bit more to avoid being carved through via their quality when pressing high.

Here, with the image taken from their recent clash with league leaders Malmö, we see how in the mid-block, they allow the opposition’s centre-backs space to ass between them.