On Thursday, it’s time for a big Allsvenskan meeting at Tele2 Arena. Djurgården hosts Malmö FF. The teams also meet next week, in the Swedish cup final, but then in Skåne.
Looking at the last few years, there are things before the match that speak in Djurgården’s favor. On the one hand, the blue-striped coaching duo Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf have achieved good results against MFF since they took over Djurgården. In league play, they have six wins, three crosses and one loss in ten games against sky blue. In the cup, each team has a victory.
Bergstrand/Lagerlöf have an even sharper conclusion against Malmö’s coach Henrik Rydström. Since Rydström became the head coach of Kalmar FF the first time, they have met 14 times and eleven times he has seen himself defeated, once of which was a loss on penalties. Otherwise, they have cruised against each other twice and on a single occasion, in May 2022, Rydström has managed to win against Bergstrand/Lagerlöf. Then Kalmar FF won 1-0 at home against Djurgården.
Ahead of Thursday’s match against MFF, Thomas Lagerlöf does not want to make too big a deal of the aforementioned statistics against Rydström.
– We may have been a slightly better football team on average. During many of these matches, we trained Djurgården while he trained Sirius and Kalmar. Djurgården has ended up higher in the table. That is certainly a factor, says Lagerlöf.
– Then we have extremely good statistics against Malmö. I think we are 6-3-1 in ten games in the Allsvenskan. Then we won each cup match. We have liked playing against Malmö since me and Kim came here. It’s fun matches, it’s tough and there are a lot of people in the stands. These are games we love to play.
But is there any kind of mental advantage?
– No, I wouldn’t say that. You don’t think much about which coach is on the other side. It’s more which team.
You don’t think Rydström is thinking tactically to break you now?
– Haha, no, I think he thinks quite a lot regardless of who he meets. I don’t think it makes any difference.
Is there prestige between coaches, or how does it work?
– Yes a little. Everyone wants to win. That’s why we’re doing this. There is, of course. But it is with a twinkle in the eye and so in most cases. But it is clear that everyone wants to win as much as possible, regardless of which coach is on the other side, Djurgården’s coach replies.
Henrik Rydström believes that he does not attach much importance to the numbers either. At the same time, he is self-critical.
– I have had Sirius, they had Djurgården in several matches, but in terms of probability, my team should have won more matches against them, if we did the right things. So I have been quite bad as a coach in several of those matches. Then we won with Kalmar against them in the allsvenskan in 2022 and have played some pretty good matches as well, says Rydström.
– Every match there are new conditions and if you are in the build all the time, we come into this match with clearly better conditions than there have been in the other matches, for example.
But when you get results like this, does it bother you? Lagerlöf admits that there is little prestige between coaches.
– You’d rather win than not win. But as I said, the conditions are so different. If you look at Sirius 2019 against Djurgården 2019, the home match was on the Students’ level, it was 0-1 late, the away match has an expulsion. Also the difference in the troops. Having said that, the goal is always to bridge the differences that exist, Rydström replies.
– Some times as a coach, I may have tried to work on developing our team and myself as a coach in those types of matches, if you have Sirius versus Djurgården then. Now Sirius has reached a higher level. There have been slightly different motivational factors.
The MFF coach continues:
– I would rather have plus than minus statistics. But I’m not the same coach I was in 2019, or last year. It’s probably not Kim and “Tolle” either. I think I am much better now and I have better conditions now too. Then Kim and “Tolle” are also good and have a game that for some reasons didn’t suit what I might have done before so well. But I screw it up all the time.
Before Thursday’s game, five points separate the teams. If MFF wins, they will therefore be significantly ahead of Djurgården, already in round five.
The blue stripes don’t want that to happen.
– No, of course not. The table is there and in the end you have to have enough points. If you take too little in the beginning, it will be too much to make up later. Last year, after all, Malmö got going last year, so it is desirable if we and other teams can join in and disrupt MFF, says Thomas Lagerlöf.
Lagerlöf says that he and colleague Bergstrand went through the loss against AIK last time and landed on what that performance was like. The analysis reads:
– It was an even football match, but we are above all dissatisfied with our tempo in the attacking game. We played too slow and it was too static. There was too little dynamism in the passing game. After all, AIK didn’t have a chance to score in the first half and so on. But then came the goal that affected the picture of the match.
– It wasn’t a disaster. Defensively it was really all right, even though we conceded two goals, but offensively it was really too slow. We must become both faster and more mobile in our attacking play.
And what do you need specifically against Malmö now?
– In addition to what I mentioned, we also need duel games. We have to get out of more duels with the ball. I think that lies a bit in that if you become too static and passive in your attacking game, then it is easy to come in second in the loose balls and 50/50 duels. That part definitely needs to be removed, says Lagerlöf.
