Deoxyribonucleic acid of a dinosaur

If I was surprised that Bedoya missed the U.S. Gold Cup, it was far more expected that Almebäck would miss out of Sweden's next two qualifyers against Moldova and Finland.  Mellberg and Majstorovic are back, and Iron Mike's form has been average.

But I have a non-Örebro point to make with this post.

Here's the likely Swedish line-up:

Isaksson
Lustig, Mellberg, Majstorovic, Wendt
Svensson, Källström
Larsson, Elmander, Bajrami
Ibrahimovic

At least that's how Hamrén would like to line it up, as 4-2-3-1 that revolutionises Swedish national team football.  The style that Zlatan described as "more modern, more offensive".  More modern and more offensive may eye, I say.  Given the qualities of these 11 players and the way they are expected to play for Sweden, admit that this looks more accurate?

Isaksson
Lustig, Mellberg, Majstorovic, Wendt
Larsson, Svensson, Källström, Bajrami
Elmander, Ibrahimovic

4-4-2.  Let's not deny our own DNA code.

On that note, the Swedish national team is having a dull moment.  The Holland game sucked the buzz and the feeling of something new and fresh out of the team.  So my comments are few and dry.

Absent injuries I think Hamrén have three questions for himself:

• The left back, Wendt or the infamous thrower-inner Safari? Hamrén will not bet on Safari in the end, Wendt comes in via the exclusion method
• The central midfielder next to Svensson?  I think Källström will be back on the team and Wernbloom on the bench, Boom-Boom has been terrible in his past few games for Sweden
• Where to play Elmander?  Elmander will play, I'm sure.  But Hamrén wants Larsson's delivery from the right.  So he needs to sacrifice Toivonen or Bajrami and as Elmander is stronger centrally (which was proven by his weak spring on the wing at Bolton) the wiser choice is to play him there.

The only notable thing on the rest of the squad is a possibly lack of players in central defence and midfield (only three in each). 

I also struggle to see the point in flying Christian Wilhelmsson in for the bench in national team games, but I guess it makes Zlatan happy.

All in all a better team then our opposition but not a team with enough quality and confidence to bag the points already now.  Far from it, actually.

The full squad:

Målvakter: Andreas Isaksson, Eindhoven, Johan Wiland, FC Köpenhamn, Pär Hansson, Helsingborg.
Försvarare: Andreas Granqvist, Groningen, Mikael Lustig, Rosenborg, Oscar Wendt, FC Köpenhamn, Olof Mellberg, Olympiakos, Daniel Majstorovic, Celic, Behrang Safari, Basel.
Mittfältare/anfallare: Sebastian Larsson, Birmingham, Kim Källström, Lyon, Anders Svensson, Elfsborg, Emir Bajrami, Twente, Martin Olsson, Blackburn, Pontus Wernbloom, AZ Alkmaar, Christian Wilhelmsson, Al Hilal, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan, Ola Toivonen, PSV Eindhoven, Johan Elmander, Bolton, Alexander Gerndt, Helsingborg, Tobias Hysén, IFK Göteborg