Following an average FIFA World Cup 2023 participation that saw them getting excluded in the Round of 16 at the hands of the Spanish, Switzerland Women continued their disappointing run of form. They lost all of their matches that followed the World Cup. In other words, Switzerland lost four games in the UEFA Women’s Nations League so far, once against Italy, twice against Spain while conceding a huge number of goals (five in Spain and seven when playing at home in Letzigrund), and once against Sweden.
This Spanish nightmare made things worse for Switzerland as it made the poor run of form become even more problematic, as conceding seven goals in a single game raises eyebrows and questions about Switzerland’s defensive abilities and organisation. Moreover, not being able to score more than one goal in four games requires some investigation as well and puts the team’s attacking performance into question.
In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will therefore look at what is going wrong for Switzerland so far this year, identify their weaknesses, and aim at proposing some solutions and ways to improve the complicated situation. The analysis will also include a look at Switzerland’s actual strikers and the ones who could perform better at the moment while taking the team’s tactics into consideration.
Switzerland’s defensive weaknesses
To begin with, Switzerland’s defensive issues can be considered as worrying at the moment, knowing that the average number of goals conceded per game is becoming higher than the standards, which causes constant problems for the team and undermines their attacking positives.
Switzerland currently concede 1.43 goals per match, knowing that this average does not take into consideration the heavy recent 7-1 loss against Spain. Therefore, head coach Inka Grings must address the weaknesses leading to conceding goals regularly and in different ways.
Limiting the average number of goals per game would undoubtedly help Switzerland a lot in winning more points and especially in having more confidence in the attacking phase. It is, in fact, the main issue that needs to be improved as soon as possible to not suffer from other painful losses.
One of the recurrent defensive issues for Switzerland is related to individual marking, especially during set pieces. The team’s defence often fails to mark properly and apply tight disturbance to their direct opponents on these occasions and, therefore, concede goals or dangerous opportunities.
A similar action occurred recently when Switzerland faced Sweden in the UEFA Women’s Nations League, and the Swiss conceded a goal due to poor marking from both Lia Wälti and Alayah Pilgrim, who could have done more to cover for her teammate in this action since she was not even marking anyone.
Being more attentive to opponents’ movements is necessary during such actions, and not letting these players move at their backs is essential during such set-pieces. In addition, the fact that neither the defensive line players nor the head coach noticed that two Swedish players were unmarked at the far post is worrying, and such situations need to be addressed in training so as not to become recurrent.
Moreover, Switzerland have been lacking fluidity and concentration during the build-up from the back, and some passing mistakes cost them too much, especially when these wrong passes are made in dangerous areas, such as in this example against Spain. While being aware of Spain’s dangerous high pressing, Switzerland’s defensive line should be more prudent when building up from the back, and going for the more secure pass/cross should be the priority against such dynamic teams.
This goal was conceded due to a wrong pass from the goalkeeper, Elvira Herzog. The intention was to pass the ball to Noelle Maritz, but Barcelona’s Mariona Caldentey was aware of Herzog’s obvious passing choice and could intercept the pass. Therefore, a lot more attention is needed in this regard, and improving the team’s overall passing accuracy in their own half would be a helpful solution as well.
Switzerland’s passing issue and lack of understanding inside their own half have been the source of numerous conceded goals lately, and this problem cannot only be blamed on defenders and goalkeepers but also on midfielders who must move without the ball actively and provide passing options constantly.
They have to constantly avoid marking and be as free as possible when the ball is at defenders’ feet as this facilitates the build-up. For Switzerland, this has not been the case recently, as midfielders have been looking a bit lazy when moving without the ball to provide passing options. They often fail to escape tight marking and are looking passive and lacking dynamism in this regard.
The following example highlights this lack of dynamism and inability to escape from marking, which obliged the defender to provide a risky pass since she had no other better solutions apart from crossing.
It is also true that the defender could have been more accurate with her pass. Nevertheless, Zürich’s Seraina Piubel should have been more attentive to this pass and could have caught the pass before it reached the opposing player while protecting it with her body.
This lack of hunger and aggressivity on the ball in midfield makes it complicated for Switzerland to win duels in midfield and challenge powerful opposing midfield players.
Attacking problems and possible tactical improvements
From an attacking perspective, it is worth noting that Switzerland equal 35.9% average shots on target per game, which is not a very impressive number for a team that have numerous talented attacking players such as PSG‘s Ramona Bachmann, Aston Villa’s Alisha Lehmann, Atlético Madrid‘s Ana Maria Crnogorčević, Dijon’s Meriame Terchoun plus some talented young players like Alayah Pilgrim and Svenja Fölmli.
Switzerland’s main attacking problem is that they don’t really have a world-class finisher and, in other words, a powerful striker. Most of Switzerland’s attacking players are good enough for different positions, mainly on the wings. But since Inka Grings does not have a powerful striker, she opted for switching between numerous players for the striker role, and these players are not strikers by nature. Bachmann, Crnogorčević, Terchoun, and Pilgrim have all been holding the striker role despite not having the natural abilities nor the movement routines or instincts of strikers.
This failure to find a proper striker for the team and the constant change of the striker in each game, in addition to the recurrent change of formations, limits Switzerland’s attacking threats and prevents the team from being as dangerous as needed upfront.
For instance, switching from the 4-2-3-1 to the 4-3-3 and then to the 4-5-1 and doing so in a consecutive way certainly impacts the players’ references and creates ambiguity in terms of required duties and movements. Grings will, therefore, have to find the most suitable formation for her ideas and the players at her disposal in order to have a fixed plan and be able to apply different ideas without losing the balance of the team.
For the striker issue, Grings will have to try simplifying things a bit and opt for less complicated solutions, such as experimenting with young Swiss strikers. In this regard, someone like Aurélie Csillag can represent a promising solution, given that she has the physical abilities needed to develop a lot more as a striker, as she also has the finishing skills and movement reflexes needed for the role. Therefore, giving some time to this FC Basel striker can be a useful idea for having a more clinical attack.
The following picture highlights Switzerland’s urgent need for a proper striker, especially when dealing with crosses. Having a player like Csillag inside the box can guarantee a lot more disturbance to defences than what is done by either Pilgrim, Bachmann, Crnogorčević, etc. This example shows how Pilgrim’s reaction to Arsenal‘s Lia Wälti’s crossing attempt was neither quick nor effective as she did not try to free herself from marking and did not really ask for the ball with conviction, which obliged Wälti to direct her cross towards the far post.
At the same time, lacking chemistry inside the penalty box and failing to finish actions in the needed way represents another big issue for Switzerland, and this does not concern strikers only but also wingers and midfielders who are required to be much more clinical inside the box.
The following example shows a very dangerous chance that could have enabled Switzerland to get a draw against Sweden if not for the alarming miss of Pilgrim and Alisha Lehmann. When the ball was coming from the crossbar, both Lehmann and Pilgrim did not really see each other, and both wanted to get to the ball first, which led to Lehmann heading it accurately, missing one of Switzerland’s biggest chances of the match.
Working on finishing, in general, will help Switzerland a lot in the near future as all of their players, especially wingers/strikers in particular, need to be more focused in front of goal.
Is it time for some changes?
Giving more time to Seraina Friedli as a goalkeeper would represent a solid alternative to Herzog between the posts, knowing that the latter was neither convincing nor consistent in terms of performances during the last period. The following goal conceded against Spain highlights the hard time she is finding to defend Switzerland’s goal convincingly, knowing that she was unable to save a normal shot with two hands, letting another Spanish player have the advantage and score a goal.
Also, a veteran goalkeeper like Gaëlle Thalmann can add more to the team in terms of advice inside and outside the pitch, given her great experience in the game. Therefore, her addition would be valuable even if she does not get much playing time.
At the same time, young talents like Livia Peng can get more playing time to raise the level of competition with Herzog and push everyone to perform better.
From a tactical and mainly a defensive perspective, opting for a fixed formation such as the 4-3-3, with three central midfielders instructed to constantly help in the defensive phase to make it more compact and secure, would be a key solution for Switzerland to avoid conceding numerous goals, in addition to the need of improving marking and direct marking in open play and during set-pieces.
Moreover, relying on new players with striker characteristics will benefit Switzerland even though such options might lack experience. Giving Csillag a chance in this role might help the team a lot regarding goalscoring, especially if Grings succeeds in fixing a formation and organising her attacking plans. This will surely need a lot of training and experimentation, yet it would surely be effective during games.
Conclusion
Switzerland will need to get past this period of bad results and start believing more in their abilities to perform better and especially to win more points in the UEFA Women’s Nations League, which would help them get their confidence back. To do so, much work will be needed from both the defensive and the attacking perspective as Switzerland will need to have more defensive compactness in addition to becoming more dangerous upfront in order to create problems for formidable defences like those of Sweden, Spain, and Italy.
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