5 main reasons for failure

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Five games, two points, no wins, relegation: the Swiss national team will no longer compete in the top flight of the Nations League in the next edition. Study the causes of failure after high EM.

Jonas Schneeberg/Keystone-SDA

Friday night's 1-1 draw with Serbia at Leitzgrund in Zurich was not enough to ensure they retain their league qualification for Monday's clash in Spain. However, the five main reasons why Switzerland were relegated from the Nations League for the first time did not lie in this fifth game. The result did not match the impressive performance of Murat Yakin's team.

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“This game reflects the whole season,” Remo Freuler said after the home draw with Serbia, which conceded a goal in the 88th minute. He was referring to the 1-0 goal that was scored without a second thought and meant a first win and a theoretical chance to stay in the league. “We had a lot of momentum here and really wanted to make it 2-0. Then we took too many risks, as often happens this season,” Zeki Amdouni added in the 79th minute said the provider of the opening goal.

Yakin talked about the lack of experience when conceding the goal: “After winning 1-0, we had a certain sense of excitement, and then we were a little too unfocused. We were in the opponent's penalty area with seven players. Usually there are five and two a protection.”

Naïveté and a lack of clarity have been a pattern in Switzerland's play in this Nations League. In the 2-2 draw with Denmark, the Swiss team gave up two leads. In the 0-2 victory over Serbia, Yakin's team had a better chance, but the opponent scored. In the 82nd minute, the Swiss team conceded a goal and the Danish team led 0-2. “We have to learn to be smarter,” Brel Embolo said after the away win against Serbia.

Inefficient

“If you see a lot of good chances, we have to score at least three goals in the second half,” captain Granit Xhaka said after the 1-1 draw with Lechgrund. “If we had taken better advantage of our chances, we would have won two to three to nil,” said Freuler. Yakin said that a lot of efforts have been made and they have implemented it according to the plan. “We had a lot of scoring situations, but the efficiency was very low. Conceding goals is annoying. But I think we need to talk more about converting chances rather than conceding goals.”

Man shoots, ball goes: Noah Okafor nearly made it 1-0 before halftime.Image: trapezoid

After the defeat in Leskovac, Fabian Riedel criticized the team's inefficiency. In the 0:2 match against Serbia, the algorithm calculated Switzerland's expected goals to be 1.60 and Serbia's expected goals to be 0.66. In the 1:1 match, the values ​​were 2.46 to 1.53. The expected goals against Denmark at home is 2.13 to 1.15.

defensive stability

“It's hard to win when you concede so many goals,” mused Freyler. When looking back at the games before the second game against Serbia, Jakin said conceding ten goals in four games was too many. “We had offensive arguments. But defensively, we have to get things back to normal.”

Yakin’s approach during difficult transformation

In the European Cup, his intuition is the biggest trump card. Nearly every tactical and personnel trick worked. In the Nations League, this is no longer the case and Murat Yakin must push for change.

Eray Cömert starts: due to resignation of Fabian Schär, injury to Manuel Akanji and Nico Elvedi Suspended, he was added to the starting lineup.Image: trapezoid

The resignations of Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabian Schaal and Jan Sommer are heavyweights – perhaps more so than at first glance, as Sommer's top replacement is Gregor Kerber. Lee is no longer aging with his magic in his recent international outings. Feet, as the value of the defender next to Manuel Akanji may be misunderstood.

So far, only goalkeeper Kerber has made an impression of narrowing the gap in time. It is unclear who will follow in the footsteps of Shaqiri and Schal. By now, moments of brilliance like Shaqiri's have faded, with a backline that ranges from A-grade Orelay Armenda to Ulysses Garcia, Albian Hajdari, Miro Mourinho and Haim, Besil Omelajic, Leonidas Stergiu, Sylvain Widmer and Gregory Vitrich to Z-level Cedric Zersig .

New national team player: Aurèle Amenda.Image: trapezoid

Some things are forced due to injuries and suspensions. However, so far it has been difficult to pin down concrete plans. Unlike the European Championships, Yakin cannot use results to erase the question marks behind the illegible concept.

Lack of luck and refereeing

Yakin may have used that excuse a little too often in recent weeks. But the national team coach is not wrong to point out the team's bad luck and the referee's unfortunate decisions. “A lot of things went against us,” Xhaka said. “Things” included Nico Elvedi's erroneous sending-off in Denmark, Brel Embolo's missed penalty in Serbia, two incorrectly awarded corners, a surge in chances, including an unusually high number of Shots and crossbars, lots of injuries and absences. to pause.

“A lot of bad decisions cost us points and I can't explain it any other way,” Yakin said before Serbia's second game. After Friday night's game, he said: “We don't want to make excuses. We solved the problem with VAR and the referees, even if overall there were too many wrong decisions today when Alexa Terzic vs. Zeki Amdouni could have been given a red card when he stretched his leg (RAM/SDA).

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