STOCKHOLM - There were more than a few raised eyebrows when Sweden turned to Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson to become their national team coach, but the path will be smoothed by his choice of talismanic Sweden midfielder Sebastian Larsson as his assistant.

The new era kicks off with a friendly away to Euro 2024 finalists Portugal on Thursday before the Swedes take on Albania in Stockholm on Monday - and former Malmo manager Tomasson said he had put some tough battles with Larsson, who played in midfield for AIK, behind him.

"You want that in any team as a player, but you also want staff members with the right attitude," Tomasson told Reuters as he presented his first squad.

For Larsson, it's a welcome return to the Sweden set-up.

"Once I had the conversation with Jon and things felt good, I got the question (about joining his staff) - my answer was very quick," Larsson told Reuters.

The appointment of Larsson, who in 133 caps for Sweden over 13 years came to embody his country's industrious, no-nonsense playing style, has calmed some of the criticism over the appointment of a coach from neighbouring Denmark to the top job.

"It was a no-brainer for me, really - the national team has meant so much to me over the years, and still means so much to me, so it was just an honour," Larsson said.

It is a shrewd move by the 47-year-old Tomasson, who has promised to play a more possession-based attacking style of football, which is at odds with Sweden's traditional direct, British-inspired approach.

MODERN GAME

In a nod to his roots in Denmark's Dutch-inspired style of playing, Tomasson declined to talk formations and instead steered the discussion towards the spaces where the modern game is played.

"I have a Danish heart, but I have a European football head, I've been abroad more or less my whole adult life, it's given me a lot of concepts and a lot of inspiration, but I want a modern, dominant way of playing," Tomasson said.

"You always have an opponent who is moving. That's why I don't always like to talk about formations, because it will be moving, and it will be fluid.

"If you control the game and if you play forward and play a quick game, have a clear mind of playing with a few touches, and you have a lot of great runs, you can create a lot of things," he explained.

That's music to the ears of Larsson, who has seen a shift in the new crop of Swedish players such as Alexander Isak and Dejan Kulusevski, away from the physicality and lung-bursting stamina of old towards a more technical approach.

"It's a completely new generation, which has their major qualities in other parts of the game, if you compare them to me," Larsson explained.

"Obviously Jon is the boss, he's the one that steers the ship, and I'm sure he knows everything about traditional Swedish values as well, so it's about finding the right path forward for the group of players we have now."

That group has struggled in recent years, sliding down to the C level of the UEFA Nations League and missing the finals of the 2024 Euros and the Qatar World Cup, but Tomasson is keen to turn the tide.

"We need to give something back to the fans. Are we going to achieve that tomorrow? No way, not at all. We will be building and it will take time, so we need to have the right patience, but also do it with passion - people love to see passion," he said. REUTERS