Sweden: What Graham Potter's side need to qualify for World Cup

Alexander Isak. Viktor Gyokeres. Anthony Elanga. Dejan Kulusevski.

With that kind of attacking talent, Sweden's qualification for the 2026 World Cup should have been inevitable.

If only it had panned out that way.

In reality, Sweden are bottom of their qualifying group behind Slovenia, Kosovo and Switzerland, having not won any of their four games.

Automatic qualification is impossible.

There is, fortunately for Sweden, another way.

They could reach the World Cup through the play-offs based on their Uefa Nations League position.

To lead them on the journey is newly appointed manager Graham Potter, the former Chelsea, West Ham and Brighton head coach who knows the national culture so well he has been described as "half Swedish".

In October, Sweden sacked Jon Dahl Tomasson less than two years into his reign.

Despite being able to call on Isak and Gyokeres, who moved for a combined £180m in the summer transfer window, Sweden's last three matches under the Dane were all qualifying defeats, twice by Kosovo and once by Switzerland. In all those games, Sweden failed to score.

Last month, Swedish football reporter Daniel Kristoffersson told BBC Sport: "This is one of Sweden's best teams, but the results are some of the worst."

Former Denmark and Newcastle striker Tomasson's reign as Sweden's first foreign head coach had started well, with promotion to the Nations League's second tier helped by Gyokeres scoring 10 goals in 2024 and Isak five.

But this year the pair have dried up, with one goal between them.

"Those players are not bad collectively, but we were underperforming as a collective massively," former Sweden and Leicester defender Pontus Kamark told BBC Sport.

"When you do it almost every game, then it is something more than just the players.

"Everyone played by themselves and there were wide areas in the midfield which exposed the weaknesses in defence. Even lower-ranked teams created a lot of chances and could have scored more.

"Tomasson was maybe a bit stubborn and thought he could pull through.

"When it has gone too far, you need to reset and start over. That is why the Kosovo game was the last. They needed to make a change."

On the day Tomasson was sacked, Potter was in his house in Sweden telling media outlet Fotbollskanalen: "I love the country and I love Swedish football. I have a lot to be grateful for towards Swedish football."

Four days later, he was given the job.

Potter's previous roles include an eight-month stint at West Ham, seven months at Chelsea, success with Brighton and Swansea, and seven years managing Swedish side Ostersunds from 2011.

The Englishman, 50, guided Ostersunds from the fourth tier of Swedish football to the top division and helped them lift the Swedish Cup in 2017.

"Potter is half Swedish," said Kamark. "Well, he's not, but he actually spoke Swedish in the press conference, so he is very likeable and he is almost one of our own. He will get more time than most foreign managers.

"At the minute we could not have got anyone better. He should be a better manager now despite some difficulty in his last two spells. He is a very modest man with good ideas.

"When the team play, you need to get everyone on board, and he is a really good manager to do that, especially for a country like Sweden.

"Maybe it's not that easy at Chelsea - there are a lot of captains on that ship. In Sweden we want one captain and we want to follow that captain."

Potter is "always adapting and innovating", according to Kamark.

"For Sweden to play international tournaments trying to dominate in midfield, we will underperform," he said.

"You need to have a collective way of playing, which Potter understands.

"He has proven it with his teams. To beat Arsenal away with Ostersunds in 2018 - even if it was a one-off game, it shows he has the ability."

Sweden could reach the World Cup play-offs by finishing second in their qualifying group, but they would need to beat Switzerland and Slovenia this month and hope Kosovo fail to pick up another point.

There is another path. By winning promotion in the Nations League under Tomasson last season, Sweden are in a strong position to reach the World Cup play-offs as one of the four best performing teams in the Nations League not assured of a play-off spot.

From there, they would be three games away from the World Cup.

"There is hope. Even people in the newspapers write about hope; experts talk about the hope," said Kamark.

"We should have won the group, but after that there's no real difference between finishing second and this Nations League route, which is our lucky ticket.

"If Potter wins three games and we go to the World Cup, he will be a god.

"And even if he doesn't succeed he will have time. Hopefully he can create something quick and then who knows what will happen?"

Click here to read article