Switzerland

Four years ago the Swiss started the World Cup better than they could ever imagined – they beat Spain in opening game. But by losing to Chile and drawing with Honduras they had to return home after the group stage. Now they try to avoid silly mistakes.

Best player – bench player

And they have the squad to do it. In South Africa they mostly had players capable of playing in a narrow, defensive system and when they had to win, they couldn’t find the creativity needed to do it. Current Swiss generation of players is one of the best in history.

Several years ago the FA decided to create a holistic approach towards nurturing young talents. Clubs were encouraged to employ youth coaches and follow the script – base their training upon technical and tactical abilities and utilise a 4-4-2 formation.

Fruits of that labour can be now seen with many players playing currently in top 5 European leagues.

Many pundits point towards Xherdan Shaqiri when asked about Switzerland’s key player. He is a Bayern Munich player since 2012, but never made it to the starting eleven bar some cameo appearances when coaches heavily rotated. He’s not attached to any position – he can play on either flanks or in the middle as a number 10, 8 or even six. He is a versatile player but his overall quality keeps him out of the lineup. Pep Guardiola called him ‘the most important bench player’.

German link

Outside of Shaqiri, Switzerland has a strong contingent in Bundesliga. One of the best up and coming left backs around is Ricardo Rodriguez of Wolfsburg. He shows quality on both ends of the pitch.

Strongly linked with the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, Josip Drmic had a nice year with Nurnberg though he and his team were relegated. He scored 17 goals this season – only Mario Mandzukic and Robert Lewandowski managed to score more than him. He is a versatile attacking player – can play in each offensive midfielder position of 4-2-3-1 but is best utilised as a lone striker. He works the channels cleverly and is technically gifted. He can be one of the revelations of this World Cup.

Switzerland has managed to produce great footballers outside of one position – centre back. In Fabian Schaer and Johan Djourou has a solid partnership, but neither of them is a world class player. The former is still not experienced enough to lead the defence and the latter never fulfilled his potential. He was once dubbed a great talent at Arsenal but they soon discovered his abilities and sold him to Hamburg. This season, HSV has managed to concede more than anybody in the Bundesliga and should have been relegated if it wasn’t for a lucky relegation play-off against Greuther Fuerth.

Switzerland has a plethora of talented footballers, but they need to think about team first if they want to be a successful team during this year and advance into the knockout stages. Beating just one team will not be enough.

Playing style

Switzerland feels comfortable in either positional play or counter attack but lack indentity and might have be a victim of not sufficient belief in the system. The Swiss will probably play in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Gokhan Inler and Valon Behrami shielding the defence as holding midfielders.

Coach

Ottmar Hitzfeld is an oldschool coach, who in the nineties had his peak of career. He won multiple Bundesliga titles with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, winning Champions League with both of them also.

Schedule and BETEGY suggestions

15th June, Brasilia: vs. Ecuador (1-1)

20th June, Salvador: vs. France (0-1)

25th June, Manaus: vs. Honduras (1-0)

Four points will be enough to secure qualification to the knockout stages, but only fo Ecuador, who will advance on goal difference, according to BETEGY. Swiss have just 50% chance of qualifying.