Tactics and a New Coach

February 19th, 2011 | by: aron | Comments Off

Lars Lagerbäck was at the helm of Sweden for ten years. That was ten years of qualifying for and playing in international tournaments. We, the Swedish fans, grew used to this kind of thing like a spoiled child and when it came to an end in the qualification for the 2010 World cup our hearts were broken. What went wrong? To start with there was an aging squad with no real alternative young players coming through. Then there was the fact that we just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net any more. Add to this that our game plan was so obvious that I wonder if anyone really bothered scouting us at all. We had played the 4-4-2 during Lagerbäck’s tenure and while it had worked like a dream for a while, suddenly we missed a big tournament and Lagerbäck was gone.

To be honest it wasn’t as if we were playing exciting football towards the end. Euro 2008? All the Sweden games are better forgotten. The only high point was Zlatan transforming himself into Ibracadabra and slamming the ball into goal with that cannon of his, while the Greek players and their George Clooney clone-of-a-keeper wondered what hit them.

Then we brought in Erik Hamren, the Swedish coach with the best CV at the moment. Ok, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s is certainly better but he is too expensive, too surrounded by scandal, and he would have just been a continuation of the Lagerbäck era. Hamren brought with him a charm offensive the likes of which took the media by storm. He turned press conferences into an assault of joy and passion, where they had once been stand offs where the first one to blink got his head blown off. He read poetry to show how the game moved him. What’s the plan and how are we going to play, asked the media? Like I always do, he said, with the 4-2-3-1.  We all sat there giddy as schoolboys, drawing pictures of potential starting elevens and fantasized about Euro 2012. Then we realized something. Who was going to actually play in this formation? Who was going to fill these shoes? Did we have some superstars on the way? Well, a couple of guys that might make something of themselves in the future. Unfortunately, in the world of football, patience isn’t a virtue fans have a lot of. Results are always expected now!

To be honest at first it worked. We lost to Italy (a friendly) but then started winning our other friendlies. Then we won our first two Euro qualifiers (Hungary and San Marino), though to be fair they were both home games. We started salivating at the thought that we might even be able to take on the Netherlands, world cup runner-up, and give them a real go at it in Amsterdam. Was it naïve? Oh yes, very and like the Candide that we were, the reality of the football world came crashing down on our shoulders. 4-1 the end result and I still wonder if the Oranje didn’t just stop playing to avoid injury. To be honest, I still don’t think that they bothered scouting us. I think they just played their own game, kept an extra eye on Ibrahimovic, and waltzed all over us.

We can still make it to Euro 2012, the question is just going to be; do we have it in us? We can’t lose a single remaining game if we want that second spot behind the Netherlands and then the play-off that follows. The final question is; will the 4-2-3-1 get us there? March 29^th will give us a better picture when we take on Moldova at home.