Sweden must qualify for World Cup 2026 while Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyokeres are in their prime, says Jonas Olsson

It is crunch time for Sweden.

They have played four World Cup qualifying matches, but have just one point to their name. Direct qualification is already out of the question – Switzerland or Kosovo will take that.

On October 14, Jon Dahl Tomasson was sacked as head coach. “Football is results-based and we have reached a point where results are not enough,” said Kim Kallstrom, the nation’s Head of Football.

Now, to have any chance of securing a place in the play-offs in March, they must win both of their matches across the next week against the Swiss and Slovenia.

“At the beginning of the campaign, there was such a positive sense about Swedish football,” former Sweden defender Jonas Olsson tells Sky Sports.

“We have probably the best team since Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Freddie Ljungberg, with Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyokeres, Dejan Kulusevski, Anthony Elanga. The team, player-for-player, is excellent.

“They have tried to go a different way with Swedish football; normally it has been very 4-4-2, with a very organised, very defensive approach.

“Now, they would like to play a bit more attacking football. The problem has been they have been too open and a bit too naive, I think.”

Concerningly, the Swedes have scored just two goals across those four qualifying games.

Olsson believes in the change of approach, but questions the timing of its implementation.

“It’s valid to change it because of the players they have available, but I think you have to take small steps into it,” he says.

“Looking at the first four games, they were too open and they got punished too easily.

“You have to have those ambitions with the players you have available. Those players I mentioned are the strength of the team and you should play to the strength of your biggest players.

“I also think they have defenders who are more suited to playing high up the pitch, with Isak Hien, who plays for Atalanta, and with Victor Lindelof. The generation before had defenders – like me, like Olof Mellberg – who were comfortable sitting deep, defending the box.

“They definitely should go that way, but they have to do it with a balance.”

The two November fixtures are also the first with new head coach Graham Potter in charge.

The 50-year-old was appointed on a short-term contract on October 20, just over three weeks after he was sacked by West Ham.

“I think it was the obvious appointment when Potter declared, before he was approached by the Swedish FA, that he wanted the job and that the salary wasn’t an issue,” Olsson continues.

“That’s normally the issue when the Swedish FA are due to appoint a manager as the salary isn’t the highest, so they can’t really go for the biggest names.

“Potter’s link with Swedish football is big because of what he did at Ostersunds, but also because of his coaching staff; his assistant Bjorn Hamberg has been with him at Brighton and Chelsea.

“Swedish supporters kind of see him as one of their own, so it’s an easy appointment to sell and, in terms of getting the balance right, his leadership qualities show he can build a good group of players and a sense of harmony.

“But the Swedish national team is at a point where they don’t have the luxury to see the long-term perspective. They need to perform now, in the two games coming up.

“It’s going to be all about just getting as prepared as possible for those two games and whatever comes after that, you deal with then.”

On Thursday, Potter confirmed Liverpool striker Isak was “fit and available for selection”, but Gyokeres is absent from this month’s squad with a muscular issue.

If the duo are fit and firing, most would fancy Sweden’s chances.

“It’s about getting them involved in the game, putting him in good positions as often as possible. That wasn’t the case with the former manager,” Olsson says.

“He wanted to play a high-pressing line, but they didn’t manage to do it. The amount of times Isak or Gyokeres was on the ball was very limited.

“Potter has to find a way to get them more involved, whether that be pressing high or whether that be being better in transition.

“Another issue was with the formation the former manager played, with one striker. It was a 3-4-2-1 formation, with Isak as a dropping striker, but I think they will play with two strikers now.

“The chemistry between them hasn’t been good at all in the national team, not in these four games or the games in the summer, so that’s something to work on when Gyokeres is back, but I do think a change of formation will be a first step towards that.”

Sweden have not qualified for three of the last four World Cups – and Olsson says it would be a shame for players in their prime to miss out.

“It would be very disappointing to not qualify again. When we got drawn into that group, with all due respect to Switzerland, Slovenia and Kosovo, everyone felt this was a good draw and we should be able to get, if not first place, then second place and go to the play-offs.

“In that context, it would be a massive disappointment, but also, looking at the main players, Gyokeres is 26, Isak is 25, Kulusevski is 25 as well. This is their prime; the next World Cup, they will be closer to 30 and who knows where they will be then.

“For all those reasons, it’s vital Sweden qualify for this one.”