Otlu: "Collision or course change, Janne?"

- The players recognize what we are working on, I think we as a national team can also develop.

Ladies' national team captain Peter Gerhardsson has got everything he wants during the camp here in Visby. The holiday pulse is long gone, the weather is still there - and they have ten days together to strengthen a group in understanding each other and understanding the directives. In a way that was taken from an instruction book for Swedish team building. Here, changes happen, but they happen slowly. Continuity is not important - it is in many ways survival. You can think of what you want, but it is a success factor and a competitive advantage. That is why Gerhardsson is happy to give a thought to his colleague in the men's team.

Janne Andersson has been forced to change - but never big. A sick Victor Lindelöf in a World Cup premiere? Then Pontus Jansson can step in. A suspended Sebastian Larsson in a World Cup eighth? Calmly, Gustav Svensson solves it. They have succeeded in isolating problems that are everyday for a federal captain, but they have never seen a number of fundamental players disappear and are surrounded by question marks at the same time.

This time it burns on several fronts. If we put everything on the table, a rather bleak picture appears. On the one hand we have the heavy knee injuries with Viktor Claesson and Augustinsson. Partly the question mark on the shape of team captain Andreas Granqvist and to some extent Marcus Berg. who are criticized by their own supporters. There is no quality doubt around Victor Lindelöf, but he has not made an international match on this side of the year.

Since Janne Andersson took over as the national team captain, he has at most changed four players from one competition international to the next. It has happened twice. The first time was five games into his time as the league captain. The second was after the World Cup when the first Nations League game awaited. The only two times four changes have been made by a volunteer that the national team management will now not get.

Augustinsson and Claesson? Two clear changes. Helander and Jansson? A temporary solution when Granqvist and Lindelöf were last missing. If everything is as it was - and it is often when Janne Andersson takes out the team - the league captain has four changes in his starting eleven before he even took out the squad.

But continuity should not only be measured from match to match. Viktor Claesson and Ludwig Augustinsson have started the 17 most recent competition matches under Janne Andersson. Two of them we know are missing in the squad to be presented before the European qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and Norway. And Augustinsson was in some ways the symbol of the benchmark that the national team created in the match against France in the fall of 2016. They did not win - but they found a belief. Since then, Augustinsson has started all competition matches, 22 in total, in Jannes national team.

The entire continuity map collapses from the damage. For now, it is not important to find individual alternatives that will lead Sweden past the Faroe Islands and Norway. Now positions will also be replaced in the long term, as Claesson and Augustinsson will be missing even the next time the national team gathers and the time after that with them - thus in the remaining part of the European qualification.

While the Swedish people are mostly pondering - and probably referring to the popular vote - on the issue of Alexander Isak or Marcus Berg, Janne Andersson needs to think bigger this time. How much can one change a national team in a qualifying period? How hard can you hold onto your model when new players and player types are coming in? Do you choose the one that you think is best or the one that is best suited to learn quickly? These are complex questions that will be answered in the near future.

With long-term injuries and older players with negative performance curves, an almost unique situation emerges during Janne Andersson's time as the league captain. Now it's not a matter of parading an injury - this time the captain needs to choose a course.