BK Häcken’s Rise to the Top Based on Smart Recruitment and Free-Flowing Style
The club has emerged from the shadows of its city rivals IFK Göteborg to become the number one club in both Gothenburg and Sweden.
They were not necessarily a possession-dominant side, averaging 53.3% possession (5th highest). But their strength was in fast-paced attacking football, both in transitions and counter-attacks. This offensive style showed by the fact they topped Allsvenskan for total dribbles and take-ons per 90 with a stunning 26.6 1v1s per 90 minutes.
Høgmo’s title-winning team are one that play in phases. They are comfortable territorially, keeping the football with their high-quality possession-happy midfield players. But they can also allow you the ball, press high and transition rapidly through their dazzling wide players and forwards.
An example of this came in Häcken’s championship-clinching performance against rivals IFK Göteborg: you can see from the graphic below how their possession varied at different times of the game yet they kept scoring goals no matter the possession state, happy to press and catch opponents off guard or keep the ball themselves and create.
The team is composed of a solid goalkeeper (Peter Abrahamsson) and two strong center-backs (Even Hovland and Simon Sandberg/Tomas Totland/Johan Hammar), full-backs (Kristoffer Lund and Valgeir Fridriksson) who can attack, overlap and get crosses into the box, a dominant midfield trio of the Gustafson twins, Simon and Samuel - a rarity in football seeing two brothers in the same team - and Mikkel Rygaard, all three of them key players.
In attack, a devastating mixture of speed, strength, pace, trickery and goalscoring prowess has come in the form of a core of about five players over the past two seasons - Alexander Jeremejeff the team’s top scorer in the championship season (22 goals), Ibrahim Sadiq, Lars Olden Larsen and Benie Traore.
It almost feels like a trick of the mind to look back in hindsight and see that Benie Traore was not at all involved in Häcken’s title-winning season. A leg break meant the exciting Ivorian talent missed the entire 2022 season, and his explosive return in 2023 almost makes Häcken’s 2022 title win even more impressive, knowing that they did it without such a quality player.
Since returning to fitness Traore has hit 12 goals in 14 games this season to earn a move to Sheffield United, who are now back in the Premier League. His dynamism, energy, speed, dribbling, and sharp finishing skills are all attributes that led the newly-promoted Blades to pay roughly £4M plus add-ons for the young Ivorian’s services. “A historic sale” as Häcken’s sporting director Martin Ericsson described it.
Traore averaged 2.54 shots per 90, 4.46 touches in the box per 90, 2.95 dribbles per 90 and a remarkable 0.82 goals per 90 in 2023 - comfortably the best in the league. It’s a blow for Häcken to lose him but the fact they can attract a record fee from a Premier League club tells you everything you need to know about the rise of Hisingen - and currently Sweden’s - finest, BK Häcken.