Ibrahimovic gets room to roam as Swedish boss gives star man free role

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be given a licence to roam by Erik Hamren this evening, with the Swedish boss intimating his captain may be able to do some damage if he drops deep.

Ibrahimovic is expected to play as more of a ‘10’ than a ‘nine’, leaving the task of handling him to Paul Green, but fielding questions yesterday afternoon, Hamren said his star man is free to alternate.

“For me, there is too much discussion on whether he is number nine or 10. He’s one of two forwards. If you want, you can say we’re playing 4-4-2 but he is free and allowed to go down and pick up the balls and find some space behind the number nine. But sometimes he becomes the front guy.

“In my opinion, that is the way to use him best. He can run too, as he showed against England, but he can’t run all the time. His body is not built for that so we need players to do that too. You’ll see different styles.”

With the Swedes just a point ahead of Ireland, it is important not to forget the hosts are under pressure to get a result too. And Hamren says his side will need to be at their best.

“I expect a tough game tomorrow and they always play with their heart for the green shirt,” he added. “We are ready, the players are ready and I am ready. It will be a tough game and we need to be really good. We have set our goal to be really good. Then we will see what happens. It is a really important game for us both.”

If Sweden are to capture the points though, the commander of their leaky defence, Jonas Olsson, feels the home side will have to tame Shane Long and dominate set-pieces. A clubmate of Long’s at West Brom, the centre-half will be handed the task of keeping the Tipperary man quiet. And while he says Ibrahimovic is the greatest he has ever played with, he ranks Long right up there with him.

“He is one of the best I have played with. I think he has had a great couple of seasons with us [West Brom]. It will be a challenge but I am looking forward to it,” Olsson said.

“The big challenge with playing Ireland as a defender is they are very good on the counter attack. We know Long is very good but also [Simon] Cox, we have to be careful about covering when we are attacking.”

But most of the focus in training this week has been defending dead-ball situations. Hamren has put on record that, after conceding 10 goals in their last five games, they need to tighten up defensively, with Ireland’s biggest threat coming from free-kicks and corners.