Djurgardens’ superior attacking quality against Hacken sees them move to the top of Allsvenskan – tactical analysis

The 13th game week of 2021 Allsvenskan saw potential league leaders, Djurgardens take on 7th placed Hacken. The game was pretty crucial for both the teams as Djurgardens are chasing defending champions Malmo for the top spot and a win would take them back to the top with the halfway stage of the season approaching. 

Meanwhile, Hacken would be looking to give a tough challenge for the Europa League spots as they currently sit four points behind 5th placed AIK. This tactical analysis features the analysis of tactics deployed by both teams and how Djurgardens narrowly edged out Hacken to claim three points. Let us begin the analysis.

Lineups

Djurgardens made one change to the lineup that beat Kalmar 1-0 last week. Striker Karl Holmberg made way for Joel Asoro as Kim Bergstrand looked to retain the majority of his team that is on an unbeaten streak. 

Hacken, on the other hand, made 3 changes to the lineup that drew 1-1 against Elfsborg last week. Hammar, Olsson and Gustafson were drafted into the lineup by Per-Mathias Hogmo. 

Djurgardens’ horizontality gets them to the final third

In a 4-3-3 system resembling modern-day possession-based teams like Pep’s Manchester City, Djurgardens went out to dominate the game by controlling the possession as well as the proceedings. The wingers positioned themselves very wide like in the image below. The idea was to stretch Hacken’s defence and find spaces in between the CBs and FBs. The wingers’ positioning meant that there were multiple instances where they were able to attract the full-backs while the CM made blindside runs into the boxes through the half-spaces.