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The day after the heroic play-off victory against Italy in Milan in November 2017, I received a phone call from a close friend. I wanted to talk about the game, but not about Andreas Granqvist’s 3,000 punts, Mikael Lustig’s euphoric run down the field with the final signal, or Janne Andersson’s tears. He was ashamed. Sweden couldn’t make two passes in a row, he said, and it was pathetic – it was hardly a national team soccer game.
He really disagreed and embarked on dry and reasonably unpleasant reasoning about tactics and play within his resources. And probably would have done it again today. This is how it works, you have to do what you are good at.
What is Janne Andersson’s and Sweden’s national team doing well in fall 2020?
The number of players is at the limit.
That question is easy to ask on a night like this.
The league captain himself explores the answer. It has a changing template. Some properties disappear, others persist, and others are added. After WC 2018, Robin Quaison, Dejan Kulusevski, Kristoffer Olsson and Alexander Isak have made their entry into the vicinity of the starting eleven, and that is what raises questions about how Andersson makes the most of what he has at his disposal.
The risk-minimizing football that led the team to the World Cup in Russia and into the quarterfinals was impressive in its architecture, exemplary in terms of federal captaincy, completely in line with what it had to face, but it had its limitations, and it has them even if you connect to other types of players.
Against Portugal we could see Sweden do the same as against Romania in Bucharest a year ago and during the second half against Croatia: Go for the initiative. During the stints, they left solid areas behind, letting Lustig and Bengtsson, who acted as Augustinsson’s substitutes, move forward and did their best to build games in small areas around their own penalty area.
It is football that requires technical skill, decision-making and rhythm.
Sweden has a starting eleven where the number of players who dominate all these aspects is almost enough.
A bad result
At the border, not on the right side, and it showed in the goals. They are goals that will be seen in the history books and that are added to three other defeats in this group, and it is moments in Pontus Jansson’s career in the national team that do not strengthen his actions.
But, like against Croatia, it is not a goal that says it all.
Sometimes the game was really good, especially during the first half, they were successful in so many ways with what they wanted to do. Few criteria also feel less fair than this Portugal, one of the best national teams in Europe and the world, with or without its cover boy in front. Bernardo Silva, Joao Félix, Bruno Fernandes, Raphael Guerreiro – but above all perhaps Fernando Santos, the captain of the team that won the 2016 European Championship and the last edition of the Nations League, and who did so by applying great tactical discipline ( even Ronaldo submits) and flexibility.
When Portugal wants to lead the game, it goes well, when it wants to play more hesitantly, it works very well. Here they showed the enthusiasm of Sweden and punished their guests mercilessly, not only with the ball. Individual mistakes are made more often than they are obscured from the sky, and this was the case multiple times here. Andersson may need to consider whether the balance of the team should change for Sweden to play like this. Personally, I missed a midfielder who guarded the baseline at various points, and I see games where this approach suits better than others.
3-0 is a bad result, but it needs context.
Janne Andersson and her Sweden explore her skills. It’s good for the European Championship finals next summer and just in time, and tonight we got some answers on where the limits go when Portugal is on the other side.
Behind the scenes: the band of friends of the Swedish national team
Who are the best friends and hang out on and off the field in the Swedish men’s soccer team? Philip Gadd and Anel Avdic ride.
