Idealess forward, defensively vulnerable, team parts that were not synchronized. The sum of the tasteless cardamom:
We were really not good. We didn't play our football. The most important thing is we follow our principles. We want to play fast, with few touches. We must play forward, be in the right positions and play through the lines. Not everyone did that on Saturday, says the national team captain.
The criticism, not least on social media, poured out on Saturday evening, when disappointed Swedish national team supporters in more or less strong language vented their discontent – and rightly so.
Flooded with criticism
Losing is one thing, but it was the way it happened that made the net flood with criticism. The hope for the future that the autumn's games in the Nations League awakened disappeared when a poorly functioning Swedish collective went astray at Stade de Luxembourg.
In just over five months, the national team enters a crucial phase when the World Championship qualifiers begin with away matches against Slovenia and Kosovo. After two missed championships, there is no room for another qualifying failure.
Therefore, a training national team match at the end of March suddenly becomes important. The meeting with Northern Ireland is not just an opportunity to immediately crawl out of the ditch and back onto the path that was taken in the autumn.
It is a necessity.
Friday's 1–1 at home against Switzerland tells us that Northern Ireland – which Sweden has historically had a hard time against – is a potent opponent.
National team captain Michael O'Neill gathers his players from clubs like Huddersfield, Sheffield W, Wigan, and Leyton Orient – not from Nottingham, Manchester United, and Newcastle.
Proud football workers
O'Neill builds his team from proud and hard-working football workers from the divisions below the Premier League – the type of players who are not gifted with outstanding talent but compensate with will, attitude, and loyalty to the team.
You can go far with that. Like to an eighth-final in the European Championship 2016 – Northern Ireland's latest success in a championship.
Jon Dahl Tomasson announces that it will be a largely different team against Northern Ireland. It is clear that Viktor Johansson will stand in goal and Victor Nilsson Lindelöf will play in the three-back line.
It is also clear that Alexander Isak will start in the attack.
