I’m not even sure a tackle is something a defender «should be doing». Its often a last ditch call with high risk of resulting in a foul in a dangerous position. Some great players, like Rio, managed to be in a position where they did not have to tackle.
Ferguson once acknowledge that he made a mistake misinterpreting statistic when he sold Stam. He noticed that his tackling numbers where in decline and figured it was an indication that the player was in decline. In fact, he was just getting wiser.*
His passing was probably according to instruction. Not to miss every pass, but not to play the ball in defence. Obviously due to the high press through the middle deployed by Mexico to make Hummels and Boateng look silly.
- He received seven passes today,
- 14 of his 15 passes was passes forward,
- Every single player in the Sweden defence made few passes,
- He played with high risk and about a third of his passes was in behind Mexicos defence. His number of passes or passing accuracy really dont matter much taking into account the game plan.
*
https://www.ft.com/content/9471db52-97bb-11e0-9c37-00144feab49a