Will lightning strike twice in the Eliteserien?

Their dramatic change in fortune began the season afterwards when they finished second in the league before going on to top that by winning the title for the first time during the 2020 campaign. Bodø/Glimt’s swashbuckling brand of football blew away all their opponents last season when they set an astonishing amount of new records. Kjetil Knutsen’s men possessed an insatiable appetite to get forward and smother the opposition, which led to Bodø/Glimt racking up a phenomenal 81 points and only losing once all season.

 

November 23, 2020

Their nearest rivals, Molde, who finished in second, could only muster 61. Indeed, Bodø/Glimt were Norway's version of Pep Guardiola's Man City in 2018 or Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool in 2020, irresistible, unstoppable and lethal. The main question heading into the season is whether they can do it again?

The latest Nordicbet Eliteserien odds on the outright winner of the league seems to suggest otherwise, with Bodø/Glimt being priced at 4/1 for back-to-back league titles. There will be a few eyebrows raised at those odds given how easily Bodø/Glimt won the league last season. Basically, what Nordicbet’s price indicates is that they don't think the reigning champions will be able to replicate their heroic football again after their best players were poached in the offseason, while their closest rivals have strengthened in the transfer market. 

In fact, the raid on Bodø/Glimt’s starlets started before they lifted their first title in over a century after AC Milan snapped up the services of young Norweigan winger Jens Petter Hauge. Milan had seen enough after Hauge danced through their defence, in a Europa League tie in late September, to set up Kasper Junker, who opened the scoring for Bodø/Glimt at the San Siro. A week later, the 21-year-old signed a contract with the Italian giants. 

 

October 1, 2020

Following Hauge out the door a few months later was talismanic right-winger Philip Zinckernagel who joined Watford. The 26-year-old Dane has been a revelation since his arrival at Vicarage Road having scored once and assisted three times in just 12 Championship appearances. Needless to say, his loss will be keenly felt up in the north of Norway. 

 

January 1, 2021

Collectively, both Hauge and Zinckernagel contributed 33 goals and 34 assists during Bodø/Glimt’s title-winning season. Perhaps another way of putting it is that out of the 103 goals the team scored on their rampage to the title, the two wingers had a hand in 67 of them.

Now, you can all of a sudden see how big a gap they leave in this team and why the thinking is that they may struggle to match their form again this season, particularly having done very little in the way of replacing the duo. Versatile forward Erik Botheim is the club’s main recruit so far this season after signing from Rosenborg but questions will be asked as to why a main rival would let a player depart if he could in any way strengthen his new club. 

Some may point to the fact that the league’s leading goal scorer Kasper Junker is still at the club and, of course, that is a positive, but the fact he didn’t also secure a move away from the Eliteserien tells a story in itself.

The harsh reality is that Bodø/Glimt will be without their star men when the new season kicks off but there is reason to be optimistic about their chances still, given how uncompromising their style of play is. Manager Kjetil Knutsen relies on a 4-3-3 system that operates in a similar way to that of Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United, where attack is considered the best form of defence. However predictable this philosophy is, teams can’t do much to stem the blitz on their goal when it’s in full flow. Indeed, a low block can be bypassed using the wings and any team intent on keeping the ball can be broken down by blistering counter-attacks.

So for all the star quality that Bodø/Glimt are now without, they have always been a football club that relied more on the sum of its parts than anything else. That may be enough for lightning to strike twice in the Eliteserien.