How Graham Potter revived Sweden’s World Cup hopes and his own career | OneFootball

Graham Potter stands one win from redemption with Sweden. Beat Poland in Stockholm on Tuesday and the 50-year-old would take his adopted country to the World Cup in June, alongside Thomas Tuchel.

According to NY Times, he rebuilt Brighton into a top-10 side, then lasted seven months and 31 games at Chelsea before a short spell at West Ham.

Appointed interim after Jon Dahl Tomasson’s poor start, he inherited a talented but faltering group. A 4-1 loss in Switzerland and a 1-1 home draw with Slovenia, both dead rubbers, underlined the need for change, so Sweden moved from a back four to a back five.

Belief improved and a four-year deal to 2030 followed before last Thursday’s play-off semi on neutral ground in Valencia, where Ukraine were the designated hosts.

Without Alexander Isak and Dejan Kulusevski, Sweden won 3-1 with 32 per cent possession, Viktor Gyokeres hitting a hat-trick. A 90th-minute consolation denied a first clean sheet in eight games.

The lifeline existed because a draw and three defeats had left Sweden bottom of a group with Switzerland, Kosovo and Slovenia. Their play-off berth came via first place in a 2024-25 Nations League third-tier section.

Potter’s blueprint mixes possession ideals with pragmatism, compactness and set-piece detail, aided by specialist Andreas Georgson. Long before this job he earned deep credit in Sweden at Ostersund, with three promotions, a Swedish Cup win and Europa League scalps including Galatasaray and a 2-1 victory at the Emirates.

Source: NY Times