YB go down 5-0 in Barcelona on Tuesday. The manner in which the defeat came about gives pause for thought. The blue Sport experts Marcel Reif and Mladen Petric believe that YB coach Patrick Rahmen is counted out.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- YB have made a miserable start to the Super League season. After eight rounds, only Winterthur are in a worse position.
- In the Champions League, YB sensationally reached the league phase, but lost their first two games against Aston Villa and Barcelona with a total score of 0:8.
- The two blue Sport experts Mladen Petric and Marcel Reif agree that coach Patrick Rahmen is certainly not the sole culprit. Nevertheless, they believe that the game in Basel could be a game of fate for Rahmen.
- Michael Wegmann, blue News Head of Sport, would like to see Rahmen given even more time and the players given more responsibility instead.
Swiss champions YB are in second-last place in the Super League after eight rounds. The Bernese side have already lost four games, with only seven defeats in 38 games over the entire last season. In the Champions League, they lost 3-0 to Aston Villa in the first round and suffered a 5-0 defeat away to Barça in the second round.
In the Champions League studio on blue Sport on Wednesday, Mladen Petric and Marcel Reif talk once again about the YB disgrace of the previous day. "The champions in this condition, how can I put it most harmlessly? They are in a very, very difficult situation," Petric began. It was no surprise that YB lost in Barcelona. However, conceding three goals from set-pieces does make you think: "These are situations where you should actually be there."
The body language of the YB players also speaks volumes. "There's a lot missing from this team, which is definitely not just down to the coach. You also have to say quite clearly that the team has become weaker and weaker from year to year in recent years," Petric says plainly. Physically, they are "extremely good, extremely strong and have a lot of pace", but in terms of play, they are currently lacking in every nook and cranny. A devastating verdict from the former Croatia international.
Marcel Reif paints a bleak picture for Patrick Rahmen
When a team doesn't get off the mark and falls far short of expectations, the focus naturally shifts to the coach. Can Patrick Rahmen still manage to turn things around?
Marcel Reif spoke to the YB coach on the pitch before the Barça game: "He's an incredibly likeable man" who prepares meticulously and does everything he can. "But at some point you get the feeling, after watching the game yesterday, that the journey has somehow come to an end. The team doesn't react to anything."
Reif also spoke again about the standards, just as the YB players and coach Rahmen had done the day before, and said: "That you have to be careful that they don't tear you apart, that's one thing. But then you at least have to defend the banal basics, i.e. standards. If you can't do that either, you're at zero."
And so it is that Sunday's game in Basel (4.30pm live on blue Sport) is being proclaimed in some quarters as the fateful match for coach Patrick Rahmen. In fact, the timing for a change of coach would not be the worst, as there is an international break after the Basel game. A new coach would have a few more days than usual to impart his ideas to the players and breathe new life into them. The same would of course also apply to Patrick Rahmen. The question will be whether the club management still trusts the 55-year-old to pull the cart out of the mud.
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Wegmann hopes that Rahmen will be given more time
Michael Wegmann, blue News Head of Sport, would like to see the game against Basel not be hyped up as a game of destiny and the club management to publicly stand in front of the coach before the game. "That would also mean that the players would probably make a little more effort and have to take responsibility and not simply blame everything on the coach."
