What Role for Niklas Alexandersson?

Swedish news paper Dagens Nyheter reckons former Everton midfielder Niklas Alexandersson has an almost guaranteed place in Lars Lagerbäck and Roland Andersson’s World Cup team. The defensive-minded Alexandersson has been a regular feature of the national squad for over twelve years, but is the thirty-four year old really inline for a starting place in Germany?

Alexandersson is very much a relic of a much more defensive kind of play. Back in the nineties Sweden was renowned for getting eleven men behind the ball. As a right midfielder, Alexandersson excelled at linking between the defense and attack and he could also put his foot in when necessary.

After struggling at Everton and growing tired of warming the bench, he moved back to Sweden, plying his trade for IFK in Gothenburg. He’s had a couple of solid seasons, scored a few goals here and there but he’s hardly set the country alight. Yet the biggest broadsheet in the country views him as practically guaranteed a place in the starting line-up to face Trinidad & Tobago in Dortmund on June 10.

The trouble with Alexandersson is that he is not adept at attacking football. Fredrik Ljungberg and Christian “Chippen” Wilhelmsson give Sweden much more of an attacking edge, but if we’re going to do well in Germany we have to score goals. And with our strikers currently struggling in front of goal, we’re going to need a midfield who can both supply a good number of balls into the box, but also take the initiative and score. The Czech Republic did particularly well at the European Championships because their midfielders were so excellent. I don’t seen Alexandersson exactly fitting in to that kind of creative role. Moreover, since moving to the Allsvenskan he’s not really played against world class opponents week in, week out.

In recent internationals, Lagerbäck and Andersson have tended to play Chippen when we’ve needed to be more offensive, and Andersson when a more cautious approach was called for. In Group B, we’re going to need to score goals and win before we meet England. In other words, expect Chippen to get the nod ahead of Alexandersson unless Sweden are two or three goals up. Against England, expect Alexandersson to start but if things go badly, Chippen will be on, steaming up the flanks, whipping the ball into the box with all his might.

Alexandersson, with his experience of the Premiership and international football, is likely to be a useful squad player in Germany; however, don’t expect him to start more than one game in the Group stages. After that, he could be more useful as Sweden reverts to counter-attacking football in a bid to knock out the big guns.

Photo:IFK Göteborg