Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Yasin Ayari has hit out at the media for the ‘dark cloud’ surrounding the Swedish team.
[Fotboll Skanalen cover comments](https://www.fotbollskanalen.se/sverige/ayaris-kanga-till-media-det-blev-ett-morkt-moln/) from the 22-year-old Brighton man today. He’s less than impressed with the media’s role in the drama around Sweden of late.
Sweden head into this international break needing to win both of their games to simply have a chance of reaching the play-offs for the World Cup. They do have a second route via their Nations League success, though.
The country are currently bottom of Group B after failing to win any of their four games so far, losing three and drawing one. They have one point and are nine behind leaders Switzerland. Crucially they are also two points behind Slovenia and six behind Kosovo, teams they would expect to be ahead of.
The situation has already cost Jon Dahl Tomasson his position as manager. He was replaced by Graham Potter, who has been parachuted in to try and save their World Cup dreams.
The criticism has been easy to find, to say the least, but Ayari isn’t impressed. In fact, the Brighton midfielder believes the media have created something of a dark cloud around the national set up.
_“We as players did not perform first and foremost,”_ he said.
_“Then the pressure from outside, you in the media, as much as you put on us and the coach, there was a dark cloud over the national team. It didn’t help that the media kept pushing it either._
_“It was a lot. There wasn’t much positive during that time. Even though it’s hard to find positive things when it comes to that, it didn’t help that you pushed either.”_