Why Bodø/Glimt won't lose their star players this summer

One year after making the semifinals of the UEFA Europa League, Bodø/Glimt have qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League, having convincingly defeated Inter Milan 5-2 on aggregate in the knockout playoffs. They’ve built their team largely out of homegrown talent, much of which spent a brief semester abroad before coming home early after missing mom’s cooking.

You might have heard pundits or seen internet commenters refer to Bodø as “well-drilled” over the past week, which isn’t inaccurate, but it’s also a very cliched way to describe an underdog who overcomes a significant talent and/or budget disadvantage. It’s also often used as a euphemism for aggressively boring. But Bodø’s tactics are pretty interesting, and they’re certainly not a defensive side.

The most clear thing that sticks out about the way Bodø play when you watch them — which is a big part of why they get stuck with the well-drilled label — is they set up in a 4-4-2 mid-block shape out of possession. But they’re quite aggressive pressing in the first phase after losing the ball, and they’re pretty good at forcing back line turnovers, then getting a lot of numbers into the box quickly.

Bodø are also excellent at shifting to a 4-3-3 once they win the ball and, if they don’t immediately have an opportunity to counter, keeping possession well and patiently probing for a quality ball into the box. They’re willing to take some risks with the ball and attack with numbers. As a result, their attacking stats look quite a bit better than a classic “well-drilled” plucky underdog, and their defensive stats quite a bit worse, because they do occasionally leave a lot of open space doing this.

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that, in both last year’s Europa League and this year’s Champions League, Bodø are rocking a negative xG differential. They’re getting a ton of help from goalkeeper Nikita Haikin, who was pretty solid last year, and has been outrageous so far this year.

Haikin signed for Bodø in 2019, briefly departed for Bristol City in 2023, and then returned without having played a game in England. There are a few key contributors on his team with a similar story, which is something I pointed out on Bluesky, The App For Sports™️ yesterday.

Pretty much every lower budget team that’s made a European run like Bodø’s has been broken up and sold off, but I don’t think that’s going to happen to this team, because… it’s already happened.

There are 4 more key contributors that have a story just like Haikin’s, and are now in their mid-to-late primes. 27-year-olds who have already failed abroad generally don’t collect a big transfer fee a second time to leave Norway. More likely than not, Bodø can take the money they’ve made from these two European campaigns, give their stars small raises, and keep them into their 30s.

Left back Fredrik André Bjørkan figured out that he wanted return home after making the move abroad very quickly. He was sold to Hertha Berlin in January 2022, loaned to Feyenoord in August of that year, and re-signed for Bodø to start the 2023 Norwegian season.

In 2022, captain Patrick Berg departed for Lens. He spent his semester abroad in France making 15 minute sub appearances where he was asked to run around a lot and kick people. He never got much of a chance to show that he’s actually quite good at passing a football.

Left winger Jens Petter Hauge spent the most time abroad of this group. He was sold to AC Milan in 2020, then bounced around Eintracht Frankfurt and Gent before returning to his hometown. The 2021-22 Bundesliga season was the closest he got to doing anything outside of Norway, and he still wasn’t particularly impressive at anything but getting a few decent shots away. Now, he’s an all-around attacking force.

Right midfielder/10 Håkon Evjen probably plays the most interesting role in Bodø’s tactics. He defends on the right flank in their 4-4-2 out of possession shape, but cuts inside to become the team’s most advanced central midfielder when they have the ball. This has been great for Evjen, formerly a true winger, but one that didn’t quite have the physical skills to consistently beat fullbacks.

He’s a solid all-around technician though, and his second wave runs from the right flank towards the center of the box have proven hard for defenses to track.

These guys are now the cornerstones of Bodø/Glimt, and it’s hard to believe that they’re going anywhere. They’re also still in their 20s and unlikely to decline anytime soon, barring serious injury. You’re going to continue to see this Bodø team in European competition for years to come, with most of the same guys playing key roles.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, we’d appreciate it if you would forward it to a friend. If you’re that friend, welcome! You can subscribe to The Transfer Flow here. We also have a podcast where we go in depth on transfer news and rumours every week. We’re on YouTube here, and you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify by searching for “The Transfer Flow Podcast.” If you’re interested in football betting, check out this post on why we started Variance Betting.