SJK 2023: How Joaquín Gómez is flourishing with Finland’s youngest squad – tactical analysis

The Finnish first division, Veikkausliiga, kicked off almost two months ago. At the time of writing, SJK remain the only undefeated side in the league, winning five and drawing two of their first seven top-flight games this term.

The club also have two games in hand over the two teams positioned above them on the table at present and if they win even just one of those two games, this will put them top of the table — a great feat for the Seinäjoki-based side who haven’t won the Veikkausliiga since 2015.

There are a lot of imposing aspects to their positive start to the season, not the least of which is the fact that they’ve got the youngest squad in Finland’s top flight this term, with an average age of just 23.4.

The team led by 36-year-old Joaquín Gómez — formerly an assistant at 2022/23 EPL stunners Brighton and Hove Albion and 2022/23 EFL Championship playoff finalists Luton Town — have produced stellar performances both in and out of possession to ensure this positive start to the campaign, as we’ll discuss in this tactical analysis piece providing an analysis of Gómez’s strategy and tactics in several different phases of play and scenarios.

SJK in possession

Our first section of analysis focuses on SJK in possession. Here, we’ll briefly examine how Gómez’s side build up their attacks, progress into the final third and typically finish their chances.

Firstly, SJK have primarily set up in a 3-5-2 shape this term — we see an example of how this shape typically looks during the build-up phase in Figure 1.

A holding midfielder is generally positioned centrally just in front of the central centre-back and behind two central midfielders who’ll be positioned slightly wider than the two centre-forwards ahead of them on either side.