It's not just the goals that are worrying for Sweden. It's also the number of goalscoring chances the national team concedes during matches. The problems with the Swedish defense have been going on for quite some time, both under Jon Dahl Tomasson and Graham Potter.
In fact, under the latter, Sweden have not kept a clean sheet yet. In the last four matches, Sweden have conceded eleven goals - most recently 1–5 against the Netherlands.
One person who knows what a defensive game should look like is Lars Lagerbäck. The former national team coach's hallmark over the years has been that players should prioritize defense first, concede as little as possible, and, when the chance arises, put the ball in.
"That's where Swedish football has lost"
"We in Swedish football have been a bit unclear about what we should prioritize in the defensive game. I watched the match against the Netherlands and noticed that we are not compact as a team; we lose duels and make individual mistakes. Swedish football has prioritized offensive players in recent years," says Lagerbäck.
The defensive game is about conceding as little as possible, regardless of whether you're facing the Netherlands, Spain or Japan. That's where Swedish football has lost.
What is the reason for this development?
It's the coaches and talent developers and how their way of working has changed. It's enough to look at and analyze the U21 national team's results and you'll see how we've lost. We have to start realizing that we need to start training in defense. The best countries train offensively and defensively. We have to produce players who master both, says Lars Lagerbäck.
Exciting generation
Former player and now television expert Martin Åslund believes that it is not the players' individual skill that is lacking.
It's more about them having played too few minutes together. They also played in a completely different way under "JDT".
Aside from the goals conceded and the chances the national team misses, there are bigger questions: what does the talent development look like at the back and who will take over after Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, Isak Hien and Carl Starfelt?
We have an exciting generation coming up, including John Mellberg and Malcolm Jeng (Reims in France), and Nils Zetterström (Sheffield United in England). They are individually skilled players. It's a shame Mellberg is injured, because otherwise he would have been a starter at Red Bull Salzburg, says Martin Åslund and continues:
But our development is clearly influenced by the artificial turf. What we see now is the result of how we have worked for the last ten years.
The last time Sweden kept a clean sheet in a competitive match was on November 19, 2024. That was a 6–0 victory against Azerbaijan in the Nations League.
World Cup qualifiers:
Slovenia–Sweden 2–2
Kosovo–Sweden 2–0
Sweden–Switzerland 0–2
Sweden–Kosovo 0–1
Switzerland–Sweden 4–1
Sweden–Slovenia 1–1
Playoffs:
Ukraine–Sweden 1–3
Sweden–Poland 3–2
World Cup:
Sweden–Tunisia 5–1
Netherlands–Sweden 5–1
