Pass and Play, the PG Way

Chris Brookes’ interview with the Sweden head coach who led them to World Cup bronze in 2019, their best finish since 2003. A former bingo caller, police officer and Hammarby IF player, Gerhardsson describes wanting to move a nation with a defensive DNA onto the front foot, cites a boyhood preference for Dutch football and Johan Cruyff, and names tactical passing as his favourite work. He explains his tournament message of winning the last game and says gold would not have made him happier. Music runs through the piece: he listened to Neil Young before Canada, Rammstein before Germany, Golden Earring before the Netherlands and Idles before beating England, and around 30,000 greeted the team at Gothenburg’s Gotaplatsen. He discusses trust, treating men and women no differently, his wife Linda Blom’s 177 top-flight games, and the hearing aids he has worn for two decades.