Interview with Peter Gerhardsson

Did you have an influence on the quality of opponents and the timing/rhythm of the game schedule for the six months prior to the Olympic tournament? If so, how?

We knew that we qualified for the European Championship in December, so we could plan for the opponents in the upcoming three windows. It was difficult because of COVID-19, so we made some fixture changes, playing first against Austria and Malta. We used those games to test some new things out and play with different starting line-ups. We then played the USA. That was good preparation for the Olympics because they are the world number one. We also played Norway in June – a derby – which was a good and intense game against a decent team. You always get special feelings when you come up against your neighbours. We chose not to play a preparation match in Japan. We had offers from several countries who were playing in other groups in the Olympics, but we chose not to play and instead invested the time in more training and preparation for the first game of the tournament.

Were your technical staff able to live scout opponents prior to the Olympic Games?  If not, were you able to video scout opponents?

A bit of both. We were in the same group as Australia and the USA, whom we had already faced in April and June. We were familiar with them, so it was only New Zealand that we had not seen live or played against. We had to do video analysis for them and watch their previous games.

Regarding the live scouting during the tournament, were you and your technical staff able to live scout the opponents during the tournament? Or did you focus on just the video analysis of upcoming games? 

Before the tournament, due to COVID-19, we were unsure how much we could travel and how many restrictions there would be. We still had one analyst that mainly watched the other games in our group. Before the third match, we already knew our potential opponents in the next round, so we assigned her to the fixtures that they were playing in.

Did your team lose any key players due to injury prior to the Olympic tournament? If so, how many? Who? How many international appearances had they made?

Basically, we are just talking about two centre-backs. First, Linda Sembrant, who got injured in May and as a result could not play in the Olympics. Then, Nilla Fischer's wife was due to give birth at the time of the tournament, so she did not travel to Japan. They have over 300 international caps between them, so they were experienced players for us.

What are the differences between the Olympics and other big international tournaments?

For Japan, in particular, the temperature was very high. We also had that at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019™ in France, but at a World Cup, you have a bit more rest and time for training. At the Olympics, you play every three days, which makes it very tough, so it is even more important to make use of your whole squad to keep players fresh and sharp throughout.

 Can you share two or three tactical adjustments that you and your coaching staff made during the Olympic tournament? 

We changed formation a bit towards the end of most games. We changed from a back four to a back three. We had done this in many games in the past and tried to surprise our opponents a bit with these changes. Another thing we did was switching our wingers. Sometimes we wanted to have a right-footed player on the left and a left-footed player on the right. Sometimes we wanted it the opposite way around. We tried to adapt this to our opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

We saw many nice attacks in the form of smooth routines down the right with Hanna Glas and Sofia Jakobsson. Both now play for Bayern Munich and know each other very well. How much does it benefit your game if you have certain players that play for the same club and have a great understanding?

We do not get so much time together with the national team, so it is always good to have players from the same club. They train and play together and are taught the same principles. I think the good understanding and harmony in our squad is one of the reasons behind our success in recent years. 

The Olympics were dominated by many great number 9 performances. In Stina Blackstenius, you have a player that defines the “modern number 9”. What makes her so special?

The first thing about Stina Blackstenius is that she is very important for us against good opponents because she is great in transition. Overall, she is just so complete. She is very fast, tough, tactical, skilful and also one of my best defenders. She leads the press most of the time. It is important that modern strikers do not just do the running in possession, but also out of possession in defence. With her great physicality, she is very hard to defend against. We use her in a number 9 role and want her to be playing on the last line of the defence more than coming deep, as we have other players who can do that. Sometimes you do not see her on the ball very often in our build-up, but she is definitely in the right position when we send in crosses or are looking for through balls.

What insights did you and your technical staff get from competing in the Olympic tournament? 

It was the second big competition where we had very few injury problems during the tournament. This is mostly down to our great medical staff, who constantly talk to the players about potential problems and make appropriate decisions with me. You always want to have your best players on the pitch – and I am not just talking about the starting line-up, but also the finishing line-up, which is equally important. It is very important that we always listen to the players if they are feeling good or if they are distracted by anything in their body or even mentally. 

What are your team’s strengths and areas to improve when looking towards the next FIFA World Cup?

I think a big strength is the attitude. The players have a very good attitude in training sessions and games. Another aspect is the transition in both directions. It is important to stop your opponents from having good transitions and to create good ones for your own team. We also work very hard on ball control. We want to play out short even in difficult situations and not just kick it away. When we play some smaller teams in the qualification rounds who defend deep and do not give us many opportunities to transition, we need to get more players into the box to be able to break down those low blocks.