Hi! MikaelinhoFM here with the eleventh episode of my first ever FM18 blog “The Bromma Boys” about Swedish talent factory Brommapojkarna, and I must say that I’m really loving both the save and this blog series. If you missed last seasons’ updates, do go back and read them through the links below.
This episode covers the entire 2021 season. We come into an important fifth season after a rather disappointing 2020 season where we got knocked out of the Cup in the quarter-final, finished third in the league and missed out on the Europa League group stage once again.
The feeling after the season was that we had stopped improving, which felt a bit troubling. I would like to see improvements in every competition this season in order to feel satisfied. I dream of finally winning Allsvenskan and qualifying for the Europa League group stage.
The Bromma Boys | Episode 11 – 2021 Summary
Transfers in
2021 Transfers in
Quite a lot of activity here! The players in can be divided into three categories:
1. Tutors – Players brought in mainly or only to tutor our young players: Boymans, Zapater, Noble, Heiskanen and Reginiussen.
2. Academy prospects – New players aged 19 or younger: Jensen, Möller, Vuckic, Archvadze and Holmqvist
Both the tutors and prospects will be covered in the next Academy episode.
3. First team players – Players regardless of age brought in to instantly fill a role in the first team. Firstly, we brought in two keepers: former Swedish U21 keeper Anton Cajtoft as our 1st choice and returning former Academy player Fredrik Vestin as back-up.
We also strengthened our back line with former Swedish U21 wing back Pa Konate, Cameroonian international central defender Stephen Sama and backup wing-back Emmanuel Adjeh Soweh on a free transfer. The midfield saw additions of backup Ruben Oliveira, who is able to play everywhere, and young stars Oscar Berglund and Lewis Park.
Do you remember Ludvig Johansson, the wonderkid from our first youth intake whom the board sold to Monaco against my will? We got him back on loan for the season, a nice addition to our AMC spot!
Transfers out
2021 Transfers out
In the 2020 post we talked about new signing Roseth as a potential team leader for seasons to come. He played so well for us during the spring that he got to make his debut for the Norwegian national team. In the summer bigger teams started showing interest in him and he wanted to leave. When Augsburg came in with a €5M plus 50% sell-on bid we couldn’t say no. We also off-loaded both Aka and Konaté who wanted moves abroad and weren’t in any way key players for us.
Squad
2021 First team squad
I feel satisfied with the squad. We have decent alternatives in every position and a nice mix of young and old. Perhaps a few too many players on central midfield, but at least Zapater is basically only there to function as a tutor.
Last season we were a bit short on Swedish players, which looks better now. Currently we have 12 Swedish players who are in the first team squad – this makes it easier for us to reach the minimum of 9 players required in match-day squads.
Swedish Cup – Group Stage
2021 Swedish Cup Group stage
As per usual we basically breezed through the group stage, facing and beating three lower league sides. We of course won the group by a large margin.
2021 Swedish Cup Group table
Swedish Cup – Knock-out Stage
2021 Swedish Cup Knock-out stage
A really tough quarter-final draw saw us face IFK Göteborg at home. We absolutely smashed them and went on beating even tougher opposition Malmö with a 5-2 score away from home. The game was tighter than the scoreline, with us scoring three goals in the last five minutes.
Brimming with confidence we won the final against Norrköping in front of over 44,000 people, a HUGE crowd for Swedish football, especially it being the cup and all. I’m absolutely delighted in us claiming our second cup title even though it has no real meaning since we’re already qualified for the Europa League quals through our third place in the league from last season.
Allsvenskan – Expectations
Media predictions 2021
Following three consecutive top 3 finishes, the media have finally started taking us more seriously, predicting us to really fight for the title along with giants Göteborg, AIK and Malmö. This basically goes hand in hand with my own expectations.
I’m in no doubt that we will be up there fighting and I really believe that we can win it this year! I feel that we have our strongest squad yet and our younger players have been gaining crucial experience over the last couple of years. The media also put four of our players in the “Dream Eleven”. Roseth in the back, young Kresojevic together with Fabregas in midfield and Lorshag up-front.
Allsvenskan 2021
All our Allsvenskan games in 2021
We started the season off nicely, only losing to top rivals Göteborg and AIK. We managed to win 10 games out of 14 in the spring and went on summer break tied for the lead with Göteborg.
We started off the autumn in the same manner, winning four straight games. Full of confidence we faced Malmö at home, getting absolutely thrashed 1-5! We temporarily bounced back with a win against Kalmar but continued to struggle in the coming games.
We became insecure and started experimenting with different tactics without success. We lost four out of seven games, including losses once again to AIK and Göteborg. We got back to winning ways and went unbeaten in the final five games, but Göteborg had gone too far ahead of us and we didn’t manage to catch up.
2021 Allsvenskan table
We finished second behind Göteborg by a 3 point margin. A draw instead of a loss in any of our two games against each other would have given us the title, but they were deserving champions. We get to play European football next season again after yet another top three finish and we seem solid as a rock. Top three finishes in all four seasons back in Allsvenskan is pretty impressive, even though I’d really like to win that title!
Europa League – Qualification stage
For the third season in a row, we had reached the Europa League qualification stage. Hopefully this will be the year we finally make it through to the group stage!
2021/22 Europa League Qualification Results
We managed to survive the 3rd round even though we got a pretty tough draw in Greek team AEK Athens. We then got a pretty decent 4th round draw in Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem. We lost away 1-0 and managed to win with the same scoreline at home. The game went to extra-time where we took the lead early on. A Vitesse goal saw them close to the group stage, but a late goal by captain Sandberg Magnusson saw us go through with a 3-2 aggregate score. We made it to the Group Stage, a great achievement for us!
Europa League – Group stage
2021/22 Europa League Group B Results
A group draw where Liverpool really stood out as favourites to win it. The other two teams, Polish Legia and Belgian side Standard, didn’t look unbeatable. We started off in the toughest way possible, with a loss away to Liverpool and followed it up with an anxious draw at home to Standard. Were we not ready for real European football!?
Yes we were! We came out guns blazing, crushing Legia in back-to-back games and finished off the group stage with an impressive draw against Liverpool and a pivotal win away to Standard. This win saw us take second place in the group, securing our passage to the knock-out stage next year! Absolutely awesome!
2021/22 Europa League Group B Table
End of season
2021 End of season awards
Pretty similar to last year with Lucas Crispim once again winning the Fans’ Player of the Year award and Gustav Lorshag becoming top scorer.
New budget with a bit of money to spend!
The board has awarded us with a nice transfer budget of over €4M, which will really come in handy as I’m absolutely 100% focused on winning Allsvenskan next season!
I thought we would win it this year, and although our 2nd place finish was a bit of a disappointment I’m really satisfied with the season overall.
We managed to win the cup and also get through to the Knock-out stage of the Europa League, which exceeded my expectations by a mile!
The next episode
In the next episode we will take an in-depth look at what’s been cooking in the Academy, aka the Talent Factory, during 2021. The talent pool is steadily growing, but are there any real superstars in the making? The only way to find out is by reading the next episode!
Thanks for the read, I hope you liked it as much as I did writing it!
- Twitter: @MikaelinhoFM
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