Wildcards?

February 13th, 2012 | by: aron | Comments(1)

Guess the Squad?

Any ideas who the wildcards for the next Sweden friendly might be? There are a few names out there for players who are on the edge of making it on to the team. First I will list the regular squad (w/o injuries).

GK

Andreas Isaksson (PSV Eindhoven)

Johan Wiland (FC Copenhagen)

Defenders

Martin Olsson (Blackburn Rovers)

Jonas Olsson (WBA)

Olof Mellberg (Olympiakos)

Daniel Majstorovic (Celtic)

Mikael Lustig (Celtic)

Oscar Wendt (Mönchengladbach)

Midfield

Rasmus Elm (AZ Alkmaar)

Pontus Wernbloom (CSKA Moscow)

Anders Svensson (Elfsborg)

Kim Källström (Lyon)

Emir Bajrami (Twente)

Christian Wilhelmsson (Dubai?)

Samuel Holmen (B.B. Istanbul)

Sebastian Larsson (Sunderland)

Strikers

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan)

Johan Elmander (Galatasaray)

Alexander Gerndt (FC Utrecht)

Ola Toivonen (PSV Eindhoven)

Obviously there are some solid names here. Ibrahimovic has slowed a notch or two from the last couple of seasons and has failed to impress in friendlies. Nevertheless, his status and role as captain all but guarantees him a spot at least until the Euros-as long as he is match fit. Elmander is having one of his best seasons in years. True to form he is not a goal machine, but he works his ass off up and down the field. Toivonen is steady at PSV (also a captain) but not shining the way he was at the beginning of the season. Nonetheless he will be in the squad against Croatia. Alexander Gerndt has lost all feeling for the back of the net. Still he remains a talented player whose private life is affecting his football negatively at the moment. He has been banned from the Sweden squad until the court case concerning his marriage has been cleared up.

That leaves room for another striker now doesn´t it? There is someone who has been riding a giant wave to towards the top of the Eredivisie and has been banging in goals left and right, including a hattrick in each of his last three appearances at the De Kuip. John Guidetti will be called up for the Sweden squad against Croatia. Whether there is a chance to get playing time or not is up in the air. It depends a lot on the other strikers match fitness.

Lustig and Wendt are not getting much playing time at the moment, which serves as an indicator that Sweden is on the lookout for a right back and a back up left back. Anyone have any ideas. We could recall Behrang Safari, and there is always the option of making Sebastian Larsson drop back to right back. Another possibility would be for Hamren to let Joel Ekstrand from Udinese get ninety minutes and see how he is holding up. The problem of course is that there are only three games left before the opening showdown against the Ukraine. Lustig needs to get some playing time ASAP.

In the long term, Ekstrand may very well be a man for the starting eleven, but it hangs on his ability to get some playing time at Udinese.

Emir Bajrami has had a tough season at Twente. He has been on and off the bench, playing as a starter, starting as a reserve, and sometimes finishing games for other tired midfielders. He seems to have lost some of that magic he used to show at Elfsborg. All this while three midfielders are eagerly awaiting their turn behind him: Mervan Celik, Oscar Hiljemark, and Jiloan Hamad. I don´t expect to see any of them against Croatia, though I would love to see Celik get a call up. Albin Ekdal is getting some minutes at Cagliari, but to me he just doesn´t seem to be showing enough get up and go for the national team.

So all and all, I am only expecting one new joiner against Croatia: John Guidetti.

If I had to go with my preferred starting line-up, at this moment it looks a lot like this:

Isaksson

Larsson (Ekstrand), Mellberg, J. Olsson, M. Olsson,

Svensson, Källström

Elmander, Ibrahimovic, Elm

Guidetti

Why not? I am sure Hamren has some other ideas and it will be a very interesting squad for him to take out. The final question I leave you with dear readers is how long will Anders Svensson last? There is a high chance that he may not make the Euro squad with some kind of injury early in the Allsvenskan spring season. What would that mean for Sweden?