Carl Starfelt snub explained when Celtic star Sweden’s rival gets the manager’s confidence
Sweden’s manager Janne Andersson has explained why he left the Celtics’ Carl Starfelt outside his team to play Kosovo.
The midfielder was left on the bench in favor of Alex Milosevic for the Swedes’ 3-0 victory in the World Cup qualifier on Saturday.
Starfelt had recently been recalled to Andersson’s squad after being left out of his Euro 2020 contingent and is a regular under Ange Postecoglou at Parkhead.
But he has not yet fully won over the Celtic support and apparently the same applies to his national team manager.
Andersson admitted that he thought Milosevic was a better alternative if Sweden were to come under the cosmic as the game progressed.
Get all the latest Celtic news sent straight to your inbox every day by signing up for our newsletter.
We cover every bit of information about your favorite club in the form of articles, videos and podcasts.
The newsletter comes every day at 12 noon and gives you a summary of the best stories we have covered in the last 24 hours.
To register, enter your email address in the link here.
And if you are not already, be sure to join the conversation on ours Celtic Facebook group and Play in sports Instagram.
He told The football channel : “What we lose a little without Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a main player who can be decisive in situations if we get pressure on ourselves at the end of a match or have to force forward.
“You want players who are very good main players. Then Isaac Kiese Thelin also disappeared this week [due to injury], and he is also a very good main player.
“What made me choose Alex before Carl is his main game status. If I had chosen a player from the beginning based on their entry into the squad, Starfelt would have played.
“But when it came to the question of having a midfielder on the bench, I felt that Milosevic is very good on his head if we were to come under pressure towards the end or have to chase a goal.
“So my thoughts went there.”