Tony Gustavsson saw what a well-stocked substitute bench can mean during the summer's football European Championship. England became European champions largely thanks to decisive performances from players like Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang – neither of them started a single match.
This has inspired the 52-year-old in his first national team squad, the one that on Friday takes on Spain in Málaga, in the first of two Nations League semi-finals.
We want to stand for continuity and stability and spice it up with top quality. It can be everything from a forward who is skilled in the offensive box if we need to push at home in the return match (on Tuesday), to having an extra centre-back with good heading game if we need to switch to a five-man defence and defend, says Tony Gustavsson.
”I haven't said that”
A player in the Swedish squad stands for both edge and stability.
To win matches, you need to have eleven who start, but those who come in are incredibly decisive whether you're going to close a match or if you need to score a goal. I take the role I get and do the utmost with it, says Linda Sembrant.
Many had incorrectly assumed that the 38-year-old had done her part in the national team after the European Championship, even her new club. When AIK presented the centre-back veteran in August, they wrote that Sembrant "during the summer of 2025 announced that there will be no more matches for Sweden”.
That's not what I said, says Sembrant.
What I said was that it was my last championship. It felt right. But I hadn't really come to "this is what I want to do". And then I got the request to join here, and it felt good.
For Tony Gustavsson, it was obvious to select Sembrant. Partly because she has shown in AIK that she still holds up in terms of play, partly because they know each other from the time when Gustavsson coached big-spending Tyresö 2012–14.
Mentor for the younger ones
He hopes that Sembrant will be the link between Sweden's new national team coach and the players.
It's important that these young players have someone to look up to, someone who can set the standard and who can also be a bit of a mentor to them. And a player who understands who I am as a leader, who understands my demands and my tactics, says Gustavsson.
She's not a given starter these days. But Tony Gustavsson has previously shown that he likes to have some more experienced players. When he was assistant national team coach in the USA, 35-year-old striker Abby Wambach, for example, functioned as a "super-sub" during the World Championship 2015.
We talk about role acceptance. That in the final stages of one's national team career, one can accept a role that's not always about the number of playing minutes. But that one, as Abby Wambach so nicely put it when we won the World Championship 2015, can also lead from the bench. Where I think Linda can be incredibly valuable to us.
