Sweden qualified for their first FIFA World Cup since 2006 by finishing second in a tough group behind France but ahead of the Netherlands. They then managed to knock Italy out of the play-offs with a 1-0 aggregate score. In this team profile, well look at their coach Janne Andersson, their squad, tactics, key man, young player to watch and a wildcard ahead of Russia 2018.
Swedens squad
Coach
Janne Andersson
Andersson has a long and quite up-and-down career in Swedish football. He had his first coaching job back in 1988 but has since 2004 been a regular around the Swedish top flight. He finished second in 2004 with home-town club Halmstads BK before finally winning Allsvenskan in 2015 with IFK Norrköping. When Sweden coach Erik Hamrén stepped down after the 2016 Euros Andersson was appointed as national team coach. His work so far has been impressive, securing a win against France in qualifying and steering Sweden to the play-offs ahead of the Netherlands.
When there, Sweden faced Italy and managed to go through after two extremely defensive performances stopped the Italians scoring. The only goal of the two-legged tie came in Stockholm when Jakob Johanssons deflected strike gave Sweden the win. Andersson has built a very strong defensive side who head to Russia and the FIFA World Cup with great confidence.
Goalkeepers
Robin Olsen, Karl-Johan Johnsson, Kristoffer Nordfeldt
Defenders
Mikael Lustig, Emil Krafth, Andreas Granqvist, Victor Nilsson-Lindelöf, Pontus Jansson, Filip Helander, Ludwig Augustinsson, Martin Olsson
Midfielders
Emil Forsberg, Jimmy Durmaz, Sebastian Larsson, Albin Ekdal, Viktor Claesson, Gustav Svensson, Oscar Hiljemark, Marcus Rohdén
Forwards
Marcus Berg, Ola Toivonen, John Guidetti, Isaac Kiese Thelin
Anderssons tactics
Sweden under Janne Andersson is a very defensive side. The focus defensively is to maintain a compact 4-4-2 shape at all times and force the opponent into wide areas. The orientation is strictly positional, the team moves up, down and to the sides as a unit depending on the position of the ball and in reference to their teammates. Sweden do this brilliantly. They will probably the best defensively organized side in Russia and each player perfectly understands their roles. Below you see just how compact they are.
Heres another example of the compactness of the Swedish side defensively.
When possession is won, Sweden a
