Graham Potter will never forget the first time he saw Alexander Isak’s name.Isak was a surprise inclusion when AIK travelled to play his Ostersunds team in April 2016 and Potter is happy to admit he was not too disappointed to see an unknown teenager thrown in for his debut.His opinion soon changed. Isak scored the second as AIK won 2-0 and at 16 years and 199 days became the youngest to ever score in Sweden’s Allsvenskan.Within a year he had won his first international cap and signed for Borussia Dortmund and the Swedes realised they might have another budding superstar striker on their hands.’Learned a lesson there,’ smiled Potter as he told the tale to English journalists in London before setting off for the World Cup and joked about how Isak liked to remind him of it every so often.The Englishman charged with reviving Sweden’s World Cup hopes knew the key to any success in the role would revolve around maximising the talents of Liverpool’s Isak and Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres. Graham Potter will never forget the first time he saw Alexander Isak’s name (The Sweden star is pictured aged 16 playing for AIK) Isak scored the winner as AIK beat Potter’s Ostersunds 2-0 that same year Now, a decade later, Sweden’s World Cup hopes rest on Isak and his partner, Viktor GyokeresIt was a puzzle his predecessor Jon Dahl Tomasson failed to crack.Tomasson, a former Denmark international striker, had been charged with modernising the Sweden team, making them less reliant on the old 4-4-2 system they adopted from the English all those years ago.In his attempts, he managed to disable their greatest threat – the two strikers born a year apart in Stockholm, operating in the Premier League and in their prime years.Potter has the pair and has known since taking the job in November that success at the World Cup would rest heavily upon having both fit and firing and finding a formula to suit them.’It’s going to be exciting to develop that,’ said the Brummie although, at the time, he had never been able to name both in the same squad and would have to wait until his sixth game in charge to play them in tandem.Injury ruled Gyokeres out of the November qualifiers before he returned with a bang for the play offs when his hat trick blew away the challenge of Ukraine and his 88th winner settled a 3-2 thriller against Poland in Stockholm to secure a World Cup place.Isak sat out the play-offs, recovering from a broken leg, and Gyokeres missed the first of two warm-up friendlies, just two days after Arsenal lost on penalties in the Champions League final.Potter had them together on the pitch for just 63 minutes of a friendly against Greece, but when he unleashed them against Tunisia in Monterrey on Monday it went like a dream. Isak only scored three goals in what was an injury-hit first season at Liverpool Gyokeres also had his critics – but the No 14 helped Arsenal to the Premier League titleBoth were on target as Brighton midfielder Yasin Ayari stole the show with two wonderful goals in a 5-1 win, Sweden’s best World Cup result since they fired eight past Cuba in 1938.They formed the front two in a 3-5-2 system. Not quite a return to the old 4-4-2 days but not a million miles away with wing backs thrown on, and Jesper Karlstrom anchored deep in midfield enabling Ayari and Celtic’s Benjamin Nygren to support the front two.The system provided a natural platform for Gyokeres to lead the line with his physical strength and running power stretching Tunisia’s back line and offering Isak licence to drift left into the channel where he was so dangerous in his two years at Newcastle.’They’re different in styles, which is good for us,’ said Potter, who first encountered Gyokeres when he was appointed Brighton manager in 2019.Gyokeres was already at the Sussex club. The Swede was young and impatient to get out on loan and score goals. Spells at St Pauli in Germany and Swansea were followed by the loan at Coventry which became permanent and proved a catalyst for his career.His attitude left a good impression on Potter who dismisses criticism of Gyokeres in his first season at Arsenal as an unfortunate aspect of modern football.’From our perspective, he scored four goals in two playoff games, got us to the World Cup, so his impact is incredible,’ said the Sweden boss. ‘From Arsenal’s perspective he’s played his role on the team, scored his goals.’They won the Premier League and got to the Champions League final and he played in most of those games, but he still gets the criticism. That’s just the world we’re in. Just look at him and how much work he does and how he goes about his business. He’s an incredible character.’Only Harry Kane (98 goals) and Kylian Mbappe (83) have scored more in Europe’s top leagues than Gyokeres (82) since August 2023.Isak (47) still ranks inside the top 15 on this list despite scoring only three since the £125m move to Liverpool. It was a miserable debut season at Anfield with problems settling into a team in transition and three months out with a broken leg. The duo both scored as Sweden romped to a 5-1 victory over Tunisia on Tuesday’It’s fair to say it probably hasn’t gone as well as he or anybody would’ve liked,’ said Potter. ‘We sometimes make the assumption that when you sign a player, automatically, it’s going to improve everything.’With his own career moves from success at Brighton to quick-fire sackings at Chelsea and West Ham, Potter knows football comes with no guarantees.’Everybody’s career can go up and down,’ he added. ‘The quality of the person and the quality of the player is undeniable.’There were signs against Tunisia of Isak recapturing his fluency. In this form, he and Gyokeres generate a serious goal threat, which will encourage Sweden to believe they can turn this terrific start into an enduring summer to rival USA 94 when they reached the semi-finals with attacking options including Martin Dahlin, Kennet Andersson, Tomas Brolin and Henrik Larsson.With caution, of course. Potter is determined to be careful with Isak’s fitness. He has not played a full 90 minutes since the injury in December and after almost a full shift of 89 minutes against Tunisia he spent the next few days training apart from the rest of the squad.His absence was explained by the Swedes as part of his personal recovery plan, and he is expected to be ready to face a Netherlands team featuring Liverpool teammates Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch, in Houston on Saturday.Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE.