Sweden are in World Cup seventh heaven now as their national side advances through the play – off semi finals having soundly beaten Ukraine last night. With former West Ham United manager Graham Potter at the helm the Swedes trounced the Ukrainians 3 – 1 to set up a final showdown with Poland on Tuesday night with a place at the summer finals guaranteed to the winner.
A far cry from Potters’ disasters at West Ham. The disgraced coach was fired with West Ham’s worst ever record – even Avram Grant’s sides performed better.
Maybe Potter has finally found his niche as a national team coach – no transfer dealings, no ‘old favourites’, -and in the case of the Sweden squad, even Graham Potter surely couldn’t ruin a team including Arsenal’s Victor Gyokeres, Celtic’s Benjamin Nygren, Newcastle’s Antony Elanga, Leeds’ Gabriel Gudmundsson, Praga’s Gusta Lagerbielke and Spurs’ Lucas Bergvall.
Even without injured prolific striker Alexander Isak, Potter’s eleven proved too strong for a modest Ukrainian side.
According to the guardian.co.uk:
Graham Potter may be in it for the long haul but the immediate outlook looks pretty bright too. This was his third game in charge of Sweden and the biggest compliment to pay is that they looked like themselves.
Most Read on West Ham News
A strong, diligent defensive performance nullified a lightweight Ukraine and it helped that, at the other end, they could call upon a centre-forward head and shoulders above anyone else on view.
That was Viktor Gyökeres, a talisman for his country even if Arsenal fans are yet to be fully enamoured.”
Shame we didn’t have Gyokeres at West Ham, isn’t it. If you believe the rumours, David Moyes turned down the chance to bring the striker to east London.
Potter’s tenure might have been very different with a decent frontman: Ironic how the West Ham coach who gained infamy by proclaiming ‘he didn’t want a striker ‘ has had his international career relaunched thanks to – a striker.**