Five games, two points, relegation: the Swiss national team will no longer be playing in the top division in the next Nations League. Research into the reasons for the failure after the European Championship high.
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- The Swiss national team is relegated to League B in the Nations League.
- The 1:1 draw against Serbia on Friday evening may have sealed their relegation, but the mistakes in the previous games are more important in the final reckoning.
- And yes, various refereeing errors also made life difficult for the Swiss.
Yes, the 1:1 draw against Serbia on that nasty Friday evening at the Letzigrund in Zurich was not enough to ensure that they could still win the league with an exploit in Spain on Monday. However, the five main reasons for Switzerland's first relegation in the Nations League do not lie in this fifth winless game, in which the result did not match the decent performance of Murat Yakin's team:
Naivety
"This game reflects the whole campaign," said Remo Freuler in the aftermath of the home draw against Serbia due to the late goal conceded in the 88th minute. He was alluding to the 1-0 lead that was so headlessly conceded, which would have meant a first win and a theoretical chance of staying in the league. "We had the momentum on our side and were desperate to make it 2-0. And then we risked too much, as so often in this campaign," said the man who set up Zeki Amdouni's deserved opening goal in the 79th minute.
Murat Yakin spoke of a lack of experience when conceding the goal: "After 1-0, we had a certain euphoria and were then a little too unfocused. We had seven players in the opposition box. Normally there are five and two save."
Naivety and a lack of composure are a pattern that has run through Switzerland's matches in this Nations League. In the 2-2 draw against Denmark, the Swiss let two leads slip. In the 2-0 draw in Serbia, Yakin's team had the better chances, but their opponents scored the goals. Switzerland conceded the goals for the 2-0 draw in Denmark after the 82nd minute. "We have to learn to be smarter," said Breel Embolo after the away defeat in Serbia.
Inefficiency
"If you look at the many good chances we had, we need to score at least three goals in the second half," said captain Granit Xhaka after the 1-1 draw at the Letzigrund. "If we make better use of our chances, we'll win two or three to nothing," said Freuler. Yakin said they had put in a lot of effort and achieved what they set out to do. "We had a lot of goalscoring opportunities, but no efficiency. The goal we conceded is annoying. But I think we need to talk more about the chances we created than the goal we conceded."
Fabian Rieder had already criticized the lack of efficiency after the defeat in Leskovac. In the 2-0 defeat in Serbia, the algorithm came up with 1.60 expected goals for Switzerland and 0.66 for Serbia; in the 1-1 draw, the figure was 2.46 to 1.53. At home against Denmark, it was 2.13 to 1.15 expected goals.
Defensive instability
"When you concede so many goals, it becomes difficult to win," Freuler mused. Ten goals conceded in four games is too many, said Yakin, referring to the games leading up to the second Serbia match. "Offensively, we have arguments. But defensively, we have to get things back in order."
Yakin's touch in the difficult transition
His intuition was the big trump card at the European Championships. Almost all tactical and personnel tricks worked. This was no longer the case in the Nations League, where Murat Yakin had to push ahead with a radical change.
The retirements of Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabian Schär and Yann Sommer weigh heavily - probably even more heavily than it seems at first glance, because there is a top successor for Sommer in Gregor Kobel, because Shaqiri was no longer able to conceal his advancing age with his magic foot in his last international matches and because the value of the defenders alongside Manuel Akanji was probably misjudged.
So far, however, only goalkeeper Kobel gives the impression of being able to close the gap in the near future. It is not yet clear who will step into the shoes of Shaqiri and Schär. Brilliant moments like Shaqiri's have been missing so far, and the casting in defense ranges from A for Aurèle Amenda to Ulisses Garcia, Albian Hajdari, Miro Muheim, Becir Omeragic, Leonidas Stergiou, Silvan Widmer and Gregory Wüthrich to Z for Cédric Zesiger.
Injuries and suspensions have forced the team to make some changes. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify a concrete plan so far. Unlike at the European Championships, Yakin cannot wipe away the question marks behind the elusive concept with results.
Lack of luck and the referees
Yakin has perhaps put forward the excuse a little too often in recent weeks. But the national coach is not wrong when he points to a lack of luck and unfortunate refereeing decisions. "A lot of things went against us," Xhaka also said. "Things" such as Nico Elvedi's erroneous sending-off in Denmark, Breel Embolo's missed penalty in Serbia, the two wrongly disallowed corner goals, the proliferation of chances, which also included an unusually high number of post and crossbar shots, the many injuries and absences due to suspensions.
"A lot of bad decisions cost us points, I can't explain it any other way," said Yakin before the second Serbia match. After the game on Friday evening, he said: "We don't want to look for excuses. We've dealt with the issue of VAR and referees, even if there were too many wrong decisions overall and a red card could have been given today for Aleksa Terzic's outstretched leg against Zeki Amdouni."
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