“Have followed Nils since he was about 12 years old in the academy. Always big and strong. Not exactly technical, but as usual still won the balls. The fact that he made it to the A-team is of course his own merit, incredibly willing to train and motivated, but then our fantastic academy has shaped him into who he is on the pitch, fearless, tough and a real MALMÖPÅG! Good luck to Nils, Sheffield Utd is not a fun team and a pretty boring city, so develop and learn a lot in the Championship environment and then return home to your parent club”
“I hope and believe that Sheffield might be the right place for Nisse to develop in the right direction. He needs to learn to use his physicality in duels. He has the speed and the ability to cover opponents, but he needs to become tougher in challenges. He can develop that in a physically tough league like the Championship. It could also sharpen his aerial game and passing under pressure. He has everything else to become a future national team player. Good luck, Nisse, and welcome back in the future!”
“Thanks for now Nils! Rarely does a center back offer as much decisive candy as you do in the summer/autumn of 2024! Come back as the inherent warlord that you have in you in, let’s say, 7-8 years. This year’s small slump will be a trifle in the context when your career is summed up sometime beyond the year 2037!”
“Good price for Z in the current situation. And a fun challenge for Z. Of course we would have liked him to have hit more with us before, but he hasn’t been particularly good this spring. So I think it’s good for everyone in the current situation. Let’s hope Z explodes in the championship. Thanks for everything Z and welcome back!”
“Good money for a player who barely played this year. Granted, it’s sad how things had been with Nils, but now that’s not the case. Best for both parties there too. Just hope he succeeds moving forward.”
“It’s crazy that Z didn’t get the chance to play more”
“I think he will be damn good in the long run”
“My opinion is that Zätterström’s limited playing time this year isn’t due to his abilities on the ball. In fact, Zätterström has everything you want in a center-back — tall, strong, and fast. Add to that he’s left-footed. It’s a dream to have developed a player like that from the academy, with great potential. He fits well in a high defensive line and likes to press tight on opponents. Good in the air defensively. Can win long defensive runs against fast forwards.”
“Choosing to play Rösler who might be slightly better right now before our own product who has jumped into the A-national team is downright weak. We are not keeping up with the trend at all, we are losing to Europe and will continue to reduce our attractiveness for young players If you have such a talent as Nisse, he should be played, of course there may be some mistakes but what a upside there is, especially next to Ponne as a teacher Then we can get a change on the field and a significantly bigger sale”
“if managed correctly, Z would have gone for big sums”
“I think he’s gotten far too little playing time.”
“The problem with releasing Nils is that he has qualities that neither Djuric nor Rösler have, and that is to produce offensively. Nils decided two matches in the Allsvenskan last year, plus a goal and an assist against PAOK”
“We have no idea how much he pushed for a sale himself. With Djuric in, his playing time hasn’t exactly increased. It’s a bit difficult to justify him staying when he’s benched every game.”
“I’m divided. Sad to see such a great talent leave. But at the same time, given how obvious it was that Rösler and now Djuric went ahead, it’s well paid. What I think is the most shameful is that it’s obvious that NZ has more raw talent than Rösler. Even though the latter is more “finished” and needs performances right away in the situation we are in, it’s sad that we can’t, right now anyway, be the club that takes a player like NZ all the way to the big breakthrough. It’s, in a way, an understatement, despite the good pay.”
Nils’ big weakness, in my opinion, is low-block defending. Both in terms of positioning and 1-vs-1 situations in tight spaces, where he’s surprisingly struggled with changes of direction. He can also come off as passive the closer to goal he defends. It’s sometimes too easy to create chances when he’s on the pitch in that phase of play.
This should be a relatively easy thing to correct. He has the physical traits you’d want. A more subjective observation is that Nils sometimes doesn’t seem to realize he’s a physical beast. He sometimes looks like a youth player in a grown man’s body. There’ve been signs of change, but then he’s acted naïvely in certain situations again.
“A lot of the value for Z lies in his age and the fact that he got a chance with the national team last year. He definitely has potential – but I think he is clearly the 4th option at the moment.”
“It is quite obvious that pushing Pontus hard in the cup and then being forced to throw in a completely untrained Z when Pontus breaks down has cost us an enormous amount. Millions in value reduction on Nils and a number of points for Pontus missing matches. A mistake on par with continuing with Friedrich after last autumn’s meltdown. Completely wrong when Nils is to replace the team’s giant, and also with a slob behind him. Pretty crappy odds that you obviously can’t put on him. The substitute appearances he has made recently have been good.”
“That Z is leaving now makes sense. He never really showed that he tackles the game with the ball except when he picks it up in the field. And his shots are just wonderful. But his passing game makes him fall short, at least in Malmö who often play the game.”
“He had the best passing percentage in the Swedish league”
“He also knocks balls away all the time, it’s also more advanced to have a high percentage when you manage and try to do something when the opponents are pressuring you.”
“I think Nils has been downright weak the times he’s had the chance since his breakthrough in the summer/autumn of 2025.”
“Nils came out like a rocket from nowhere. A decisive performance in the European qualifiers. National team debut. There were probably many of us who saw and hoped for a Hugo Larsson sale on the horizon. Of course you can be disappointed with how it actually turned out in the end, both financially and athletically for Nils.”
“He looked like a dizzy chicken during several matches. Cost us points in a match this spring when he was substituted and barely knew what was forward or backward, and hasn’t gotten many minutes since then. Good sale.”
“I’ve never seen anything in that guy that I think is fantastic or even promising. But that’s my opinion”
“he’s fast, but I find him quite clumsy and not very comfortable on the ball. Even if he’s had some good games, I’ve never really seen the greatness in him that others may have. But good for us, and fun for him. Hope he does well in England and proves he can become really good.”
“we get paid fairly for a player who doesn’t fit in.”
“I’m sure the English club see something I don’t, but 37 million SEK feels like an incredibly high transfer fee for what he’s shown so far. There are tons of 20-year-old defenders who’ve scored goals and made contributions in decisive Europa League playoffs, maybe haven’t started every match, but are in teams that won the league last year and made the cup final this year.”
“Zetterström goes for a little less than Anel or kind of the same actually. An Anel who slaughtered in the Allsvenskan, yes Anel was older but still And people say it’s too cheap. Jeez.”
“He will not be as good as Anel”
“We have been working for a while to get Nisse sold.”
“Not easy for any defence playing with Robin Olsen”