The Swedish men’s national football team gathers on Monday for four Nations League matches, where the national team captain Janne Andersson has promised that we will see a partly new Sweden.
It will be without team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, who has had recurring problems during the season with Manchester United.
– He has had serious problems at the end, and needs to heal it in a good way, says national team captain Janne Andersson at a press conference before the collection’s first training.
Another midfielder who not one hundred percent is Emil Krafth, who has been ill and later joins the camp. But he was on the road to recovery on Sunday.
– Victor has been a very important player during all my years, he has never disappointed me so it is clear that it is a big break, says Janne Andersson.
How it will be with a replacement for Victor Nilsson Lindelöf depends on how fast it goes for the international football association Fifa to approve Edvin Kurtulu’s change of national team.
The process can go so fast that the Hammarby player has time to join later in the collection, says the national team captain. He thanks Hammarby’s sports director Jesper Jansson, who made the national team aware that the 22-year-old was about to be selected in Kosovo’s A national team and thus could be locked into that national team.
Edvin Kurtulus was born in Halmstad but has up to U21 played with Kosovo. Now Janne Andersson called him and he decided to choose Sweden.
Previously, midfielder Anel Ahmedhodzic, among others, has opted out of Sweden. In this case, it went the other way, and Sweden seems to have had a somewhat more active strategy.
– It is clear that it is a whole, that we must be active in these cases, but I can not call every single 17-year-old in this situation, it is more when there is a sharp situation, says Janne Andersson.
He says that he respects choices that players make with regard to their families’ history, the only thing that is a problem is when you play in all youth national teams and then switch to another country, Janne Andersson thinks.
– It tastes bad, he says, despite the fact that this is exactly what has happened in this case, to Sweden’s advantage.
Edvin Kurtulus also has played as a right back, but Janne Andersson sees him as a center back in the national team.
Even though he is not ready for a starting eleven in the national team today, he is together with Hjalmar Ekdal who also makes his debut this collection, interesting midfielders for the future, says Janne Andersson.
The Nations League matches against Slovenia, Norway and Serbia will be a way to work in a partly new way of playing.
– What we are looking at now, when we will be very good next year and the year after that, they fit in very well, Andersson says about Kurtulus and Ekdal.
Read more:
Hjalmar Ekdal ready for national team debut – without big brother: “Typically he would be injured”
Guide: It’s at stake in this year’s Nations League
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