Helsingborg will have to defend their place in the Allsvenskan through the relegation playoff after just about managing to scrape fourteenth place on the final game of the season. After a solid mid table finish in 2015, this season was far less smooth for Henrik Larsson’s side. Early in the year the former Swedish international offered his resignation after a slow start to their campaign, but after that was refused their season did not pick up at all and the club were always amongst the bottom teams in the league. Aside from not picking up many wins, Helsingborg frequently failed to take any points and went on long series of losing matches. Only Falkenbergs, who finished bottom of the league, lost more often than HIF. Part of the reason for their high number of defeats was their low amount of goals scored, which stood at just 34 for the whole season, also the second worst in the league. A run of five matches without a win near the end of the season threatened to send HIF down automatically before they managed to take wins late in the season to just sneak ahead of Gefle. Helsingborg will therefore face the third place team in the Superettan, Halmstad, who were relegated last season from the Allsvenskan. With Helsingborg’s form having picked up in the final couple of games of the season they have some momentum, but the squad has not played well throughout the whole season and is low on confidence. The only bright spots in what has been a poor season came from mid season signing Bradley Ralani who had a very positive impact on the team and Adam Eriksson who turned out to the most consistently good player throughout the season. Other players had good phases during the season but it was rare that HIF were able to string a series of results together and they only beat sides outside the bottom five on three occasions during the campaign. If HIF do manage to stay afloat through the playoff then there will a substantial job for whoever takes charge of the 2017 season will have a significant job on their hands to create a solid enough squad able to survive long term in the league.
