If the 0-2 defeat in Malmö was expected, the 1-2 loss against Häcken was sloppy, after a late decision. But in Thursday’s away match against Halmstads BK, Hammarby did not manage to score points either.
HBK netted in the 45th and 52nd minutes and a Bajen forcing failed until substitute Tesfaldet Tekie reduced the score in the 90th minute of the match. Even last year, the team had problems on away grass, when only three teams took fewer points away from home in the Allsvenskan.
Center back Edvin Kurtulus believes that the team should examine itself in this match. About the losing streak away from home, he says:
– If I’m being completely honest, it’s nothing that I think about, but we take it match by match. We know it’s tough to get here. I’ve played here and it’s not as easy as people think. They are good at what they do, so we should have punished them a little better. But we don’t succeed today so congratulations to them.
Head coach Kim Hellberg:
– It is clear that we want to win matches away from home as well. A few days ago we were pretty good, today we weren’t so good. We want to win away games, absolutely, and it’s clear that losing football games in general is not fun, he says and continues:
– Last time I thought we should have taken a point, today I don’t think we are good enough. We have a hugely young starting eleven, we have to work on and get better.
Team captain Nahir Besara insists that the future is bright for Hammarby, but that it will take time with the new way of playing.
– It feels like there has been talk about it (the away form) since last year. It’s not good enough. I also said that in the dressing room, that you can’t play the same way at home and away. It’s not the tactics themselves, but the “mindset”, he says and continues:
– It’s not the same way at home, when we play in front of 25-30,000 and have our fans, things like that. Playing away from home against a team like this – it takes a little more “approach” in the head, one might say, from the players, says Nahir Besara.
How are you going to change that?
– The thing is that we have a way of playing that we really, really believe in with all my heart. I think that is the football of the future, the way we play. But as I said to our fans out here: Bear with us. We have a young team and we will only get better.
Hammarby has a home match against Västerås SK in the upcoming round on Monday.
