Update 13.3 as Honka has quite fairly raised some interest:
Expected favourite, but at current lineups far from that big. Naturally these things tend to change.
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11.3.2019
Veikkausliiga 2019
Update 13.3 as Honka has quite fairly raised some interest:
Expected favourite, but at current lineups far from that big. Naturally these things tend to change.
29.5.2018
15.5.2018
Veikkausliiga May 18th
Local odds:
Asian odds by Sportmarket:
Local bookie giving ridiculously short odds on SJK.
Expected points table below, points per game as the number of played matches varies:
2.5.2018
Veikkausliiga May 3rd
Full round, and not much joy and speed to be expected as the teams are now playing twice a week.
One likely market mover is KuPS as SJK preview mentions 9 possible absentees. SJK can actually handle it as they have a wide material, but it surely looks ugly and markets likely to react.
Lineups:
VPS no drama, Douglas and Lähde would be needed, they are on the bench.
Kemi: some weakish players subbed in and out. 2 strikers starting.
RoPS Lingman rested on the bench, cb Hämäläinen out and Geffrard in.
Honka striker Ömer out all season, new singning Kandji starting from bench, form unknown but class is good for this league, it has been shown previously at HJK.
HJK rotating more or less, and it looks like they have too many good players now when every one is fit.
Lahti no drama, but only kids on bench.
Ilves look like very defensive also today, perhaps even more than usual as Noubissi and Tamminen both at bench.
SJK missing a big number of players and it shows on the bench, the starting-11 are more or less regular starters.
KuPS big miss is keeper Virtanen, and cb Toivomäki who perhaps has not been excellent by any means, but surely Pitkänen need to show today some improvement also in his role.
MIFK getting finally back important cb Petrovic.
TPS miss cb Holma, df Friberg.
Local odds
Best asian odds, from Sportmarket:
26.4.2018
Veikkausliiga April 28-29th
Busy schedule continues, most clubs played on Wednesday, and as you the rest period here is too short, and the pace of the matches in general is very slow.
Inter rotating, 5 reg starters benched. Honka finally get some creativity to starting-11 in Kaufmann.
Local odds:
Sportmarket PRO:
23.4.2018
Veikkausliiga April 25th
Watching Liverpool - Roma last night gave me some insight and good example of all that is wrong at Inter Turku when things get bad. Trying to defend with 3 center-backs and two lazy wing-backs leads you easily to big problems, especially if the defending midfielders fail partly too. Roma got destroyed under immense pressure, but in the case Inter it does not have to be quite that strong.
Lineups:
RoPS: cb Hämäläinen injured, replaced by weak Geffrard. Top attacking duo Lingman-Lappalainen rotated.
Lahti: Top striker Anier suspended for one game.
VPS: keeper change, last season's shaky nr 1 Meerits returns.
Ilves obviously doing some rotation, Tamminen, Aspegren and Tanska would start in my team.
Inter only meaningful change is striker Furuholm --> Ademi.
HJK start first time with Egyptian striker Gamal, CB Obilor returns, mf Annan injured, mf/striker Valencic benched as usual, Klauss rotated, Pelvas and Alho still starting which is kind of amazing given their poor performances.
MIFK still without most important mf Petrovic and another key man Sparrdal Mantilla and I see their future hopes rather gloomy. Pitch still almost unplayable natural grass.
KuPS about unchanged since last time after the injuries of Nissinen and Karjalainen. Murillo and El Said are the players to follow.
20.4.2018
Veikkausliiga 21-22.4
It is getting busier, 4 of the clubs played on Wed, and as you well two days of rest between games is not enough for recovery.
Two of the new signings/loanees in Veikkausliiga are bigger than usual starts, both El Said (KuPS) and Gamal (HJK) have more than 1 million followers in the social media.
Garcia returns. Inter have good attack, TPS does not.
SJK not rotating enough, Honka gotten a few important players back to squad - El Amrani, Kauffman and Obra, but still miss a few.
Last season's best keeper Vasjutin makes a comeback, Ilves missing natural left back.
HJK rotating half a squad, only big miss cb Obilor. KuPS complained about tiredness already last time, still not rotating enough.
7.4.2018
Lineups SJK - Kemi PS. Veikkausliiga 1/2018
A few surprises here as well, SJK have a completely new cb pair in Tikkanen - Vales.
Markets:
Lineups VPS vs Inter, Veikkausliiga round 1/2018
VPS without top attacking & mf players Vahtera, Morrissey and Lähde and have benched keeper Meerits, for a reason to be honest.
Inter miss long-term injured players and surprisingly also Garcia, Varmanen and Penninkangas.
Markets: rather steady at all bookies as Sportmarket shows, a bit of a drop at local.
29.10.2017
Veikkausliiga 2017 review
In the table close to the bottom I have collected a number of rankings from different sources. There is some media, there are almost random betting tipsters, and a few professionals. I only left mine there to be recognized, as the point is not to critisize anyone for bad job, but rather highlight the features of predicting Veikkausliiga. The trend is to buy players just before the season start, or in the middle of it, and it makes compiling total season rankings somewhat frustrating, and constant updating is the key. During the season there are some very busy weeks, or even months, when the trend of a team may be hard to define as they do lose matches purely because of exhaustion.
SJK and Inter were almost everyone's favourites to be in the top-3, neither was even close performance-wise even if SJK did win a lot of undeserved points here and there. SJK sacked 3 managers during the year, also the 4th pair of caretakers will have to give room to Tommi Kautonen. Perhaps more about him sometime in future, but in short I can not see him changing the course - or staying in job until his contract runs out.
Inter took a calculated risk with Shefki Kuqi as manager and most believed that he would get sacked, as he did. However his successor Piccareta did not do any better, Inter did not win 2 matches in a row all season! Inter is too much a retirement home and a nice club to hang around, they are too old and comfy and keep on remembering the good old days when they once won the title. Not going to be repeated anytime soon.
Both KuPS and Ilves got kind a "cheap" top-3 position. They earned less points than top-3 in latest 3 seasons, but that is actually down to HJK being totally superior all season from the start. SJK and Inter perhaps gave away their top-3 for someone else to take, but under these circumstances both KuPS and Ilves deserve some silverware.
Lahti took 4th place - and EL position - with the last kick of the match vs HIFK and dropped MIFK out of Europe. This is all good, a welcome change from this season's Europa League teams. Lahti were looking for a long time to a 2nd place, but their keeper Vasjutin - league's best? - got injured for the crucial parts of the season and his replacements could not keep up.
MIFK were strong at home, but did not deserve any more than what they got. Last season's transfers were not properly covered - and they also ran out of luck of 2016. Very much routine out there, but they travel poorly.
Well yes, there is VPS. They were the most over-performers of the Expected goals - count until they got kicked out of Europe by Brondby. They however won 3 of their 4 EL matches, but given the performances in the matches it was something that is likely never going to be repeated. VS Olimpija they had crossed the half-way line about 5 times, and yet they scored the winner on 2nd half!
It is only justice that they got their hugely long run without a win after it, as no one is - and should not be - that lucky. At VPS they actually thought they had a superior team and way of play... in the end they are where they deserve to be, and they were clearly the worst team in the league by any metrics for the last 15 rounds or so.
RoPS had massive injury problems, they fielded a young squad most of the time and they beat HJK twice away!
Kemi rely on individual skill, organization and coaching is not at a very high level and they come from a small and remote city. Future will never be bright for them, if there even is one. Rumours say that they will financially survive.
HIFK had old-timers in the starting lineup, an old-timer managing the team and they failed in giving any youth needed playing time. Very predictable team without much imagination, and they are slow as snails. If they now relegate in the play-offs vs Honka it is exactly what they deserve. They do rely too heavily on their hard core fans, and are widely ignored by other football fans or families in the area as their image is somewhat dirty. Honka are the favourites in this two-legged fixture.
JJK started the season with one of the worst squads of all times. When everything was about lost they made some important signings, and they were acceptable for the last third of the season. Still not a very good try, and I do not see them back at Veikkausliiga anytime soon.
TPS won the promotion from Ykkönen, and at least the Turku derbies return which is a good thing, but at this point it is impossible to say how competitive they will be 2018. They were a big club once.
Rankings made by local experts, final table and 2014-2017 total points
SJK and Inter were almost everyone's favourites to be in the top-3, neither was even close performance-wise even if SJK did win a lot of undeserved points here and there. SJK sacked 3 managers during the year, also the 4th pair of caretakers will have to give room to Tommi Kautonen. Perhaps more about him sometime in future, but in short I can not see him changing the course - or staying in job until his contract runs out.
Inter took a calculated risk with Shefki Kuqi as manager and most believed that he would get sacked, as he did. However his successor Piccareta did not do any better, Inter did not win 2 matches in a row all season! Inter is too much a retirement home and a nice club to hang around, they are too old and comfy and keep on remembering the good old days when they once won the title. Not going to be repeated anytime soon.
Both KuPS and Ilves got kind a "cheap" top-3 position. They earned less points than top-3 in latest 3 seasons, but that is actually down to HJK being totally superior all season from the start. SJK and Inter perhaps gave away their top-3 for someone else to take, but under these circumstances both KuPS and Ilves deserve some silverware.
Lahti took 4th place - and EL position - with the last kick of the match vs HIFK and dropped MIFK out of Europe. This is all good, a welcome change from this season's Europa League teams. Lahti were looking for a long time to a 2nd place, but their keeper Vasjutin - league's best? - got injured for the crucial parts of the season and his replacements could not keep up.
MIFK were strong at home, but did not deserve any more than what they got. Last season's transfers were not properly covered - and they also ran out of luck of 2016. Very much routine out there, but they travel poorly.
Well yes, there is VPS. They were the most over-performers of the Expected goals - count until they got kicked out of Europe by Brondby. They however won 3 of their 4 EL matches, but given the performances in the matches it was something that is likely never going to be repeated. VS Olimpija they had crossed the half-way line about 5 times, and yet they scored the winner on 2nd half!
It is only justice that they got their hugely long run without a win after it, as no one is - and should not be - that lucky. At VPS they actually thought they had a superior team and way of play... in the end they are where they deserve to be, and they were clearly the worst team in the league by any metrics for the last 15 rounds or so.
RoPS had massive injury problems, they fielded a young squad most of the time and they beat HJK twice away!
Kemi rely on individual skill, organization and coaching is not at a very high level and they come from a small and remote city. Future will never be bright for them, if there even is one. Rumours say that they will financially survive.
HIFK had old-timers in the starting lineup, an old-timer managing the team and they failed in giving any youth needed playing time. Very predictable team without much imagination, and they are slow as snails. If they now relegate in the play-offs vs Honka it is exactly what they deserve. They do rely too heavily on their hard core fans, and are widely ignored by other football fans or families in the area as their image is somewhat dirty. Honka are the favourites in this two-legged fixture.
JJK started the season with one of the worst squads of all times. When everything was about lost they made some important signings, and they were acceptable for the last third of the season. Still not a very good try, and I do not see them back at Veikkausliiga anytime soon.
TPS won the promotion from Ykkönen, and at least the Turku derbies return which is a good thing, but at this point it is impossible to say how competitive they will be 2018. They were a big club once.
Rankings made by local experts, final table and 2014-2017 total points
A lot of players will be retired, but the unpleasant truth is that in most cases they should had retired a few years ago. One of the top managers - RoPS Juha Malinen - will leave the club and take over U21, probably eyeing on the prospect of senior national team some day. One or two clubs may face bankrupcy or other financial set-backs.
HJK will also dominate the season 2018. At this point the field is wide open behind them, but KuPS are likely to add some more stakes and to be around in the top. In a league which is as low class by European standards even a few top individuals may make the difference. HJK btw sold league's best scorer Alfredo Morelos to Rangers in the summer. He leads the goal scoring table there too.
*******
The positive news are that HJK's reserves Klubi-04 got promoted to Ykkönen, as there are a dozen or so talented kids who need as high level football as possible. Some of them are 16 years only, great prospects!
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The season will end properly on Nov 4th with a 2nd leg play-off between HIFK and Honka. The new season of 2018 will start in January with the Cup group phase, and there will be news and articles here about it. The groups are here:
20.10.2017
Veikkausliiga penultimate round 20.10.2017
Surprisingly many teams still have something to play for, top-4 and relegation is still somewhat open.
Lineups soon, and markets too.
Lineups soon, and markets too.
11.10.2017
Veikkausliiga 12.10.2017
Full round of 6 matches, 4 rounds to go in total. Champion has been deciced a long ago, but there is fierce battle for top-4, and to avoid relegation.
Top match of the latter is HIFK vs Kemi.
A few words of each match with lineup commentaries to be updated 3-4 hours before kick-off.
Lineups:
Betting market charts taken from Sportmarket at 10:00 local time on match day, at which point there is no new info available, not publicly anyway.
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