This is how Schröder will crack the national team zero - clarity above all

Sweden's women's national soccer team has experimented with line-ups and positions like never before.

During ten international matches under new national team captain Tony Gustavsson - in which there have been only two victories - the national team has played with seven different back lines. Gustavsson has oscillated between a four-back and three-back line, spinning around players in the "wrong" positions, poking seasoned stars and time and time again forced to change due to injuries.

Now is no longer the time for experimentation.

Sweden must win the upcoming doubleheader with Lithuania (away on Friday and at home on Tuesday) to continue to have a chance at the World Cup in Brazil 2027.

- Of course it's not an optimal situation, says veteran Amanda Ilestedt about all the changes that have taken place.

- As a backline player, you know that it usually takes some time before you find relationships between each other. But you do what you can and try to make the best of the situation.

When Gustavsson presented his playoff squad last week, he had decided on a new line: clarity above all else.

In the squad review, he not only divided the names based on team parts, but based on exact positions – all the way down to the level of detail such as right and left inside back.

Things can of course happen and the situation can change, says the national team captain ahead of Friday's away meeting in Kaunas. But the starting point is that the players should be used in the positions they are used to from their club teams. This means, among other things, a four-back line against Lithuania, and that Felicia Schröder - Real Madrid's successful signing who is still goalless in the national team - will play central forward.

Gustavsson has previously tested Schröder a little further down the track. Now none of the strikers are selected as "ten".

- It has to do with simplicity and continuity, says Gustavsson.

- The easiest way to get Felicia to score her first goal in the national team is to just say "run". She will have the same role here as she has in Real Madrid, without having to think about a lot of changes.

Several players agree with Gustavsson that there has been too much new in too little time in the national team.

- It may have been so, but it's easy to look back, says London City striker Rosa Kafaji.

- Now we look ahead. We are all ready to qualify for the WC.

Amanda Nildén (Tottenham) started as center back in the WC qualifiers in June. Now she is primarily selected as a left back.

- I think we are all very flexible, you just have to adapt to the conditions you have behind you, she says.

On the opposite fullback, Smilla Holmberg has suffered a sprained foot during this week's national team meeting at Bosön on Lidingö.

The Arsenal star has started in the last nine internationals, but now there could be a change in the right-back position. In the squad there are alternatives in Alice Bergström (Liverpool), Hanna Lundkvist (Manchester United, who is initially selected as a midfielder) and Sofia Reidy (Hammarby, called up after a rejection from Lyon's centre-back Elma Junttila Nelhage).