Gustav Svensson has not had it easy since he returned to Blåvitt. The 34-year-old’s game has been criticized and IFK Gothenburg lost four straight games earlier in the autumn. After being drawn into the qualifying battle, Blåvitt has managed to get the ship on the right keel, and after tonight’s 3-0 victory against Djurgården, the team is ninth in the Allsvenskan.
Svensson explains how IFK Gothenburg has managed to win three matches in a row now.
– Above all, it is because we have collectively found a basis to stand on. We play much tighter and we play together – it makes my work very, very easy. There will be more dueling games and a little more controlled play and then it’s easy to read the game and lie down, which I’m good at. All credit to my teammates for that, says the IFK midfielder.
The collaboration with Simon Thern in the inner midfield was a strong reason why Blåvitt was 3-0 already after 53 minutes of play against Djurgården. Gustav Svensson on how his own game lifts:
– Football is like everything else in life – it is clear that self-confidence lifts the individual and the collective as well. Now we have gained confidence in the team and that really reflects us right now. Like the team, I have more self-confidence and dare to push a little more, says Svensson who reacted badly to the setbacks a few weeks ago:
– It is clear that it was difficult. They are hard to cod one match, and then when you cod several matches in a row and end up down the table – I have never been in my career. It was very hard, especially for us to come home and be the rescue a little. That did not happen, but now, as I said, we have found something collective to build on. In the future, this is the minimum of what we demand of ourselves.
After the match, Therns’ father Jonas sent an SMS to the IFK midfielder. Jonas Thern, today coach at the super one leader IFK Värnamo, wrote that the son would greet Svensson that he “held Jonas Thern class today”.
– I take it as a compliment (laughs). But I do not know Jonas and do not know if he was ironic and thought I looked old and tired. I hope it was meant as a compliment, says Gustav Svensson.
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