For yet another season Hacken finished in the top half of the table, but were not consistent enough to trouble the top 3 positions. From early on it was hinted that Yellow and Blacks still don’t have enough class to challenge the top sides – 1:1 draw vs. Malmo to open the season and 0:1 defeats vs. both AIK and Djurgarden in rounds 4 and 5.
Hacken had excuse for those early mistakes as in April and May the team went all the way to the final of the Swedish Cup before eventually lifting this trophy.
The league form was probably best in the summer, with 6 wins achieved in 8 rounds in July and August. However, the 2 negative results were again against teams sitting above them and Hacken simply failed to win the matches that mattered most in 2019.
The conformation of the team’s mid-table status came near the end of the transfer window in August when top scorer Jeremejeff (8 goals in first 19 rounds) completed move to Germany and Hacken didn’t replace him properly.
Late in the season the team expectedly struggled for goals without Jeremejeff and Hacken went on to win just 1 of their last 8 league games (D4 L3).
There were some positives though with both Andersson and Berggren having breakthrough seasons. The latter started 2019 as substitute, but gradually became so influential that he was the first name to be put on the starting sheet come the end of the campaign.
Yasin struggled though, with 1 of his only 2 goals from the penalty spot. The same was valid for 2018’s Allsvenskan top goalscorer Paulinho who was so inconsistent in 2019 that the manager trusted him from the off in only 16 of the 30 rounds.
Hacken know they have solid core of players, but they need 2-3 big signings if they want to close the gap to the top sides and properly try for top 3 finish in 2020.
