Great Bodo/Glimt Tactic

Imagine a place where, for a few precious days each year, the Sun never sets, bathing the world in eternal daylight. On the flip side, when winter solstice arrives, the Sun retreats entirely, plunging the land into a long, mysterious night. This enchanting phenomenon is witnessed in the Arctic Circle.

As winter approaches, the Sun says a temporary farewell, hiding below the horizon for a staggering 20 days. But come summer solstice, the tables turn, and the Sun refuses to set, hovering in the sky for another 20 days of relentless brilliance.

So, if you ever find yourself yearning for an adventure where the Sun disappears within the horizon, set your sights on the Arctic Circle.

And while you are there, make sure to check out the two most well-known football clubs of the region – Tromso and Bodo/Glimt.

At the turn of the century, Tromso was the one to celebrate 16 years in Norway’s top division. The first season in the top division would be very hard for Tromsø, the club eventually had to play qualification to survive.

An experiment in the 1987 season proved valuable to Tromsø: tied matches would be decided on penalty shootouts, awarding three points for a win, two for a shootout win, one for a shootout loss and zero for a loss. Sounds familiar – the EFL Trophy?

Thanks to Bjarte Flem's exceptional penalty saves, Tromsø won seven out of nine shootouts that year. The experiment was dropped after that season. However, the system with three points for a victory was kept.

The 1989 and 1990 seasons would become the two most successful top division seasons to date, with Tromsø winning a bronze and a silver medal, respectively. The club's coach during this time, Tommy Svensson, would eventually coach the Sweden national team to a bronze medal in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Bodo started football late, in 1916. While other towns in Nordland County like Narvik, Mo i Rana and Mosjøen had started their football clubs already.

In 1919, Glimt won their first title: County Champions of Nordland. The club changed its name in 1948, due to an older club from Trøndelag having the same name, and has since gone by the name Fotballklubben Bodø/Glimt. The slash was originally a hyphen, but was gradually changed in the 1980s to avoid confusion as hyphens were often used to separate teams on betting coupons and in result tables in newspapers.

Teams from Northern Norway were not allowed to compete in the Norwegian cup-competition until 1963. In their first appearance in the Norwegian FA cup in 1963, Bodø/Glimt managed to get as far as the fourth round after a home win 7–1 over Nordil, and two away wins.

It wasn’t until 1972 that northern teams had the right to gain promotion to the Norwegian top division. This was due to the old belief that the teams from Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark could not compete at the same level as the southern teams.

From 1973, Norway had three second divisions: two divisions for southern teams and one for northern teams. Bodø/Glimt took three years to gain promotion, due to the promotion rules.

The first-place holders in the two southern divisions gained instant promotion, but the first place holder in the northern second division had to compete in play-off matches against the two second-place holders from the south.

This league system caused a lot of bitterness in the north, and this worsened in 1975 when Bodø/Glimt, as the first club from Northern-Norway, won the Norwegian Cup, but did not gain promotion due to the special play-off rules for North-Norwegian clubs.

After a glorious top-division debut in 1977 — second place in the league and the cup, both against Lillestrøm — Bodø/Glimt played four seasons at the top level before relegation in 1980, finishing last at 12th place.

The 1980s were the darkest times in the club’s history, with Bodø/Glimt playing in the 2nd division and the regional 3rd division. For a couple of years in the mid-1980s, they weren't even the best team in Bodø, with rivals Grand Bodø surpassing them in the standings.

But the tide turned in 1991. With manager Jan Muri in charge, Glimt was promoted to the 1st division.

The following season they hired Trond Sollied as manager, and the team won the 1st division in the 1992 season. At last, in 1993, Bodø/Glimt was back to the top-division, and as in the debut season of 1977, they finished second in the league.

This time they also managed to win the cup final (a 2–0 win over Strømsgodset). The Cup-Championship achievement was the crowning of three remarkable seasons, going from 2nd division to 2nd place in the top-division in only three years — an achievement rarely seen in the Norwegian league system.

However, if we fast forward, in the 2005 season, Bodø/Glimt was relegated.

Following a series of back and forth between Norway’s two best football divisions, Bodo/Glimt finaly settled in the first division.

Ahead of the 2019 season, Glimt was mentioned among the relegation candidates by most pundits, especially since the club had sold key players like captain Martin Bjørnbak and top scorer Kristian Fardal Opseth. Glimt surprised everyone, and clinched a 2nd place in the Norwegian Eliteserien.

And enter stage – Kjetil Knutsen.

In the 2020 season, even though the club sold several good players, Kjetil Knutsen managed to guide the team to their first ever league title. The won 26 games and scored 103 goals in the 30-games campaign. Also, they became the first Northern-norway club to win the Norwegian first division.

Ahead of the 2021 season, Bodø/Glimt had sold their three front men Philip Zinckernagel, Jens Petter Hauge and Kasper Junker.

These three players scored all together 60 goals and provided 35 assists the previous season, and Glimt had not brought in clear replacements for these players. Pundits were again skeptical to Glimt’s title chances, but again the team surprised everyone, as they were crowned back-to-back league champions after a 3–0 victory at Mjøndalen in the last match of the season.

Out of the last 5 seasons, Bodo/Glimt won 4 first league titles and finished second place in 2022.

Slowly but surely, the Northern-norway club were making strides in European competitions also. Thus, we arrive to the club’s most important achievement in football ever – the first Norwegian team to ever qualify to a European competition semi-final stage.

From not being allowed to play in the top division as they were considered to be unfit for the league level to becoming Norway’s most well-known football club in recent times.

I haven’t watched other games of Bodo/Glimt than the ones against Lazio Roma this season. But these two games made me root for the Norwegian club like they were my all-time favourites.

The first leg, played in the scenic stadium of Bodo/Glimt saw Lazio being dominated and possibly feeling lucky they got away with only a 2-0 defeat.

In Rome, the story was different, but only because Andres Helmersen decided to miss an incredible chance. Lazio put in a fight and the game was pushed to penalties.

Enter stage Nikita Khaikin. Three penalties saved later, Bodo/Glimt emerged victorius over the two legs, defeating the Italian club in their own back yard.

As tactics, I noticed Bodo setup in a 4-3-3 formation. Our hero, Nikita Khalkin does not seem to go out of his way to pick-up loose balls, but I chose a sweeper keeper on defend duty as he offers a passing option at times.

For the back four I chose two wing backs on support duty and two central defenders on defend. The wing backs are expected to go up the pitch and the ball is progressed.

The defensive midfielder is a defensive midfielder on defend. An anchor or a half back could be used here as well. But I felt like the defensive midfielder role emulated better how Patrick Berg played in recent games, plus it seems to fit better his attributes in the game.

The central midfielders are a box-to-box midfielder on support and central midfielder on support. Make sure to check the central midfielder role and add player instructions if you need the player chosen here to play in a certain way. As the base role coms without any player instructions.

I asked the player here to go further forward and take more risks, as I want him to be as aggressive as possible off the ball and come up in the attack when possible. And on the ball to try and find the best possible pass forward.

And the three attacking players are a winger on support on the right side, an inverted winger on the left side and a pressing forward on attack up front.

I tried to keep the formation as balanced as possible, but to make it dominant in the same time. No other player instructions were used. We mainly rely on the player traits and the roles’ instructions.

I chose positive as mentality.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And play for set-pieces.

In transition, counter-press, although I did not notice this style of pressing being employed often by the team. It’s only that in the game, the pressing is done better if this option is ticked on. You can tick it off if you like. Counter and distribute the ball to whichever player or position the goalkeeper chooses to.

And out of possession a mid block and a standard defensive line. I noticed that whenever the pressing was not possible within the first seconds after losing the ball, Bodo/Glimt retreated in their base formation, trying to meet the opposition at the halfway line.

With a standard defensive line, at least in the game, this restricts the space the opposition can use to attack our team.

And trigger press more often.

I only simulated one season using this tactic and the team won the league title. Not in a dominant way, they switched places with Molde throughout the season.

In other competitions, the team lost in the Cup final on penalties, to Rosenborg and were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League league phase.

All in all, the tactic seems worthy of this team’s achievements. I did not know much about Bodo/Glimt before researching the video. What they managed to do in Norwegian football after what they had to overcome is extraordinary.

I am glad there are teams like this that keep believing and create real underdog stories. It feels like Bodo/Glimt and Kjetil Knutsen play Football Manager in real life.