dot   Home     World     Europe     Sweden  
Flag Sweden

Sweden

Lagerbäck Shocks Swedes With Squad Selection

   

Lars Lagerbäck almost did a Sven today by surprising the sports hacks with his and Roland Andersson’s squad selection for the World Cup.

Of course, there was no surprise Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Barcelona’s Henrik Larsson were named, but it did seem rather excessive to select six strikers.

The biggest shock was undoubtedly the omission of right-back Alexander Östlund. Then again, Östlund who plies his trade for Southampton in the UK, was largely blamed for Sweden’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Ireland in March

Österlund has struggled with his weight, his pace, the ball, his shoelaces and his beard of late. Oh, and he’s also struggled playing professional football. Clearly Lagerbäck and Andersson are saying “Take some time to get your act together”. Well, that or “We decided to try and shore up the leaky defence.” Seriously, it must be a bit of a kick in the beard, erm, teeth to lose your place in the national side like that. Poor lamb.

Lagerbäck did find places for two players previously on the periphery of the national squad: IFK Gothenburg’s Karl Svensson and Fredrik Stenman who plays for German side Bayer Leverkusen. Perhaps Stenman is going along to provide inside information on the German team, should Sweden progress to the knock-out stages.

Or translator? Or perhaps he’ll run Theo Wallpaper or whatever his name is off the park.

All in all it looks like the kind of squad we’ve been used to in Sweden. A few experienced, world class players. A couple of young talents and aging journey men. And one or two players who are basically along to make up the numbers. If you want me to name names, you’ll have to make me a very good offer.


Subscribe

 

rss icon Sweden World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Print

Share

Comments are closed

 

MORE EUROPE BLOGS

france
France World Cup Blog
998 articles | 12,643 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
201 articles | 1,850 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 322 comments
 
england
England Football Team World Cup Blog
1,035 articles | 5,228 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog
687 articles | 5,278 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
1,063 articles | 32,761 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,550 articles | 66,634 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
489 articles | 7,787 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
550 articles | 9,464 comments
 
serbia
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
208 articles | 1,511 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
347 articles | 3,327 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
227 articles | 386 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
270 articles | 452 comments
 
ukraine
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
119 articles | 1,066 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
210 articles | 217 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
117 articles | 1,119 comments
 
scotland
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
129 articles | 124 comments
 
ireland
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
112 articles | 166 comments
 
norway
Norway World Cup Team Blog
16 articles | 8 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
49 articles | 314 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 118 comments
 
denmark
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
72 articles | 149 comments
 
albania
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 articles | 8 comments
 
belgium
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 articles | 59 comments
 
wales
Wales World Cup Team Blog
62 articles | 17 comments
 
bosnia
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
52 articles | 112 comments
 
israel
Israel World Cup Team Blog
33 articles | 28 comments
 
slovakia
Slovakia World Cup Team Blog
18 articles | 20 comments
 
slovenia
Slovenia World Cup Team Blog
43 articles | 133 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 

 
Closer

International Football Jerseys
Bet on International Football
Football Tickets
Noticias de Futbol
Tournaments
Euro 2012 Qualifying
Africa Cup of Nations 2012
UEFA Champions League
Europa League

Follow WorldCupBlog on Facebook   Follow WorldCupBlog on Twitter  
World Cup Resources
World Cup History
World Cup Legends
World Cup Memorable Moments
World Cup Photos
World Cup Videos