Is Alexander Isak to blame? How Sweden’s World Cup qualifying campaign turned to disaster | OneFootball

For the first time in the history of the men’s national team, Sweden might be about to sack their manager. There have been departures after tournaments and contracts left unrenewed after a disappointing season. But never has the Swedish FA felt the need to fire its head coach in the middle of a qualifying campaign, until now.

Jon Dahl Tomasson is on the brink after overseeing an unmitigated disaster. Sweden are bottom of Group B with one point from four games and, barring a miraculous set of results, they will not be at the 2026 World Cup.

Last month, Sweden drew their opening game 2-2 in Slovenia, having twice let the lead slip. Still, it was a point on the board with the group minnows next. They went to Kosovo, ranked 99 in the world, who repeatedly countered behind Tomasson’s sluggish back three. Sweden had 69 per cent possession and lost 2-0.

No panic yet, but now they really needed to win, or at the very least draw, the next game against Group B favourites Switzerland in Stockholm. The Swiss dominated the ball and had plenty of shots but Sweden created the clearest chances. Alexander Isak hit the post at the end of a flowing move, and then teed up Lucas Bergvall for a tap-in open goal only to watch in horror as the Tottenham midfielder contrived to miskick the ball from six yards. At the other end, goalkeeper Robin Olsen fumbled a straight shot into his goal, and Sweden lost 2-0.

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Alexander Isak hits the post against Switzerland (Getty Images)

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Lucas Bergvall attempts to tap home Isak's cross... (AFP via Getty Images)

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...Isak consoles a stunned Bergvall after the missed open goal (Getty Images)

One point from three games, but at least the qualifying campaign was still salvageable with the visit of Kosovo on Monday night. This, finally, would be lift-off on the road to the World Cup. Isak again started in a luxury front two with Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres while captain Victor Lindelof returned to defence, but the victors on the night were Kosovo in a worryingly comfortable 1-0 win.

So Sweden are cooked and so, probably, is Tomasson. The FA’s football director, Kim Kallstrom, said after the defeat: “We have one point after four games, so we need to step back and think and analyse a little in peace and quiet.” Which, in Swedish culture, is not a good sign.

Tomasson has been castigated in the media, first for not utilising his substitutes and then for using the wrong ones; for committing to a 3-5-2 that hasn’t worked; for a bizarre decision to keep hidden his starting line-up before last night’s match with Kosovo so that his own players were left in the dark until less than two hours before kick-off.

It meant that Daniel Svensson, usually a left-wingback for Borussia Dortmund, learnt he was playing in central midfield at short notice. Asked if he was surprised by his role, he said: “Well, a little bit. I know that Jon thinks I can play in several positions, but wingback is probably my first position that I play in the club. I know that I can play [in midfield] but it wasn’t like I expected to start there.”

Had he at least trained there? “No, not directly.”

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Jon Dahl Tomasson’s time as Sweden manager could be over (AFP via Getty Images)

Tomasson might rue small turning points like the ball hitting the wrong side of the post, some individual errors, Bergvall’s malfunction. He tried to push the blame towards the Swedish FA, suggesting he was directed to play the type of attacking football that he implemented at Blackburn and Malmo, the implication being that he was asked to prioritise style over substance. The Swedish FA’s technical director Caroline Sjoblom denied this, telling Aftonbladet: “There has been no order that we should play ‘modern football’. Instead, we should play football that will win matches and hopefully take us to the World Cup.”

But while the Swedish media has focused on their Danish manager, social media has focused its criticism on the star player. Isak’s summer playing transfer games with Newcastle ultimately provoked the Liverpool move he so badly wanted. But there can be no doubt that it has impacted his national team’s World Cup qualifying campaign.

After spending the entirety of Newcastle’s preseason on the picket line, Isak completed his life-changing transfer to Liverpool for £125m on deadline day, so it is safe to assume his mind wasn’t necessarily on dismantling Slovenia in a qualifier four days later. Tomasson chose to leave Isak on the bench – much to the delight of Liverpool manager Arne Slot – and Slovenia pinched a point with a 90th-minute equaliser. A fully fit Isak would have been the best player on the pitch and it is not much of a stretch to imagine he would have been a game-changer in a match of fine margins.

Isak came off the bench in Kosovo a few days later and missed a big chance late in the game. The entire event was something of an Isak circus and the questions around the match were all about Liverpool’s new striker – his fitness, his transfer saga, his side of the story. “Not everyone has the full picture, but that’s something for another day,” he said after the game, quotes which went around the world. Meanwhile, his national team were toiling.

By the time this second international break came around, Isak had at least started a couple of Premier League games for Liverpool. But when he joined up with the national team, Tomasson was still not getting the same ruthless Isak as Newcastle enjoyed last season, still without a full 90 minutes under his belt in mid-October, having scored only one goal all season. By contrast, as gleeful Newcastle fans have been pointing out, Nick Woltemade scored Germany’s winner against Northern Ireland last night, his sixth goal of a fruitful season.

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Isak did not play in Sweden's opening qualifying match against Slovenia (Getty Images)

Sweden are no strangers to egotists. This is a national team which endured an often tortured relationship with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, so desperate for his goals and aura that managers and the media put up with the melodrama. He retired and then announced he was going to play in the tournament, and no one could stop him. Sweden arguably improved when Ibrahimovic finally departed the stage before the 2018 World Cup, a team galvanised by the absence of their narcissistic leader.

But Ibrahimovic delivered memorable moments and a shed-load of goals, many of which were crucial. Isak is a different character but could be accused of being just as self-absorbed, at least for a summer. He has yet to fully deliver on his talent in a Sweden shirt, with only 12 competitive goals, and he added no more to that tally across these two-and-a-bit games.

Isak did at least show some spark in moments and might well point to the underwhelming performances of his teammates over recent weeks, like the error-prone goalkeepers, Malmo’s veteran Olsen and Stoke City’s Viktor Johansson. The three-man defence in front of them has been meek and messy in the goals they have conceded – five years on, Sweden have still not managed to replace the leadership of their warrior captain Andreas Granqvist.

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Sweden's star strikers, Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak, have failed to gel (Getty Images)

Then there is Isak’s strike partner, Gyokeres, who has been utterly impotent in this qualifying campaign. He has mustered only two shots on target in the four games, of which he has played every minute. Tomasson has that classic problem of international football where talent is spread unevenly across the squad. He has defenders and midfielders plying their trade in the middle reaches of Allsvenskan or at the foot of the Premier League, and yet possesses two of the best No 9s in the world.

Tomasson’s solution was to pair these very similar profiles together but it hasn’t worked. Isak has been half-baked and Gyokeres has been terrible. Add in the injury to Dejan Kulusevski, who hasn’t played at all in this campaign, and it has left Sweden lacking the cutting edge needed to escape from a very escapable group. Four games, 10 shots on target, two goals and one point. The first 48-nation World Cup is on the horizon, and Sweden almost certainly won’t be in it.