Nati on descent: Now it’s about Yakin’s work!

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Even the otherwise diplomatic SRF expert Beni Huggel demands: “After the European Championship qualification, a fundamental discussion will be necessary.” After another misstep against an opponent who was clearly weaker on paper, there are many question marks surrounding the national team. And one thing is clear: the question of whether Murat Yakin is still the right coach must also be raised.

It is not just about the question: what happens after the European Championship in the summer of 2024? After the downward trend of recent months, combined with the noise off the field, a short-term vision is also necessary. In other words: is Yakin the right coach for the European Championship, even if he manages to qualify in November? Or, like host country Germany, will a new start on the sidelines be needed to rekindle the fire?

Blick gives the reasons why the coaching question for the national team arises after the 3-3 draw against Belarus:

After the confident start to the European Championship qualification, the trend has been steeply downwards since June: only two were won in five matches, two of which were difficult against football dwarf Andorra. The national team conceded a total of seven goals against Romania, Kosovo and Belarus and never won. That must be something to think about – given the quality of the Swiss team and the demands made by the players and the association. And one more thing: there is no indication that the bottom has been reached. The impression that the national team recently left causes serious concerns about the European Championship ticket – and that in by far the weakest of all qualifying groups.

It is the origin of the downward spiral within the national team, which is now turning faster and faster: the World Cup in Qatar. With Rodriguez and Widmer, Yakin named only two trained full-backs in his 26-man squad. This becomes a problem in the round of 16 against Portugal, when Widmer is forced to forfeit due to illness. Tactically disoriented and physically weakened, the national team lost 6-1. The gossip is only inadequately addressed afterwards. The gist: Portugal recovered more quickly, the national team was weakened by the spreading virus. Self-criticism? No.

No portrait of Murat Yakin comes without terms such as ‘serenity’, ‘coolness’ or ‘sovereignty’. He is the type of person about whom it is said: when they enter the room, everyone turns around. But the Yakin aura has been crumbling for months. There is nothing left of the aura that surrounded him after he was appointed Nati coach in the summer of 2021. The latest example: Visiting the SRF studio after the 3-3 draw against Belarus, Yakin appears perplexed and answers questions and input from Rainer-Maria Salzgeber and Beni Huggel. “You don’t need to prepare defensively against our group opponents” – this statement is very questionable after seven goals against Romania, Kosovo and Belarus. It is not without reason that it is said: just as a coach appears externally, he also communicates internally.

When asked about his strengths, all Yakin experts replied: No one can read the game like him, no one can paralyze the opponent like him. The halo of the tactics god has surrounded Yakin since his European Cup successes with FCB, when he twice defeated Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the group stages of the Champions League. A plan, Yakin’s idea, is always quickly recognizable during national team matches – but unlike in the past, this increasingly turns out to be an error in tactics. In the 1:6 defeat at the World Cup against Portugal, the change in the defensive system was more of a hindrance than a help. The 2-2 draw against Romania came about after Yakin’s substitution, after the team seemed stable earlier. And against Belarus, the renewed system change to a back four does not bring the desired defensive stability – on the contrary.

They play in Europe’s top leagues and perform well week after week in their clubs: Manuel Akanji, Fabian Schär, Yann Sommer and Ricardo Rodriguez. But you hardly see any of that in the national team kit. Yakin fails to get the players anywhere near their level in the club. Schär is the symbol for this. The central defender has been flying high at Newcastle for months. Most recently, the Magpies defeated PSG 4-1 thanks to a dream goal from Eastern Switzerland. In the national team he hardly puts one foot in front of the other. Schär was in trouble against Kosovo and Belarus when he conceded several goals.

It starts with the early substitution in the 100th international match against Kosovo in Zurich and gets an extra accent in Prague, after the 1-2 defeat in the Nations League against the Czech Republic. Captain Granit Xhaka opens the series of taunts by saying: “The coaches who know me and my game know that my position is lower.” It was about tactics, about Xhaka’s position. After the 2-2 draw in Kosovo, Xhaka criticized the training and the pitches. Very specific. Yakin replies that they trained as usual. And now these new tips. First of all, that of is unrealistic. He does not mention the name Xhaka. And yet: you feel the accusation of a certain arrogance and ignorance.

Granite Other players would have this feeling too. Time and again you hear the accusation that Murat Yakin’s training plans are spontaneously thrown overboard. And the quality of the units suffers enormously. The players also suffer from the fact that the coach always has his mobile phone with him during training.

The two words have accompanied Yakin since the beginning of his coaching career: sooner or later there will be rumblings in and around the team’s Yakin coaches – and “atmospheric disturbances” will occur. As a result, Yakin was fired from FC Basel in 2014, despite two championship titles in a row and sensational results in the European Cup – because there was a crunch between him and the top dogs Stocker, Sommer, Streller and Degens. Similar trends have been heard around the national team since the World Cup in Qatar: Immediately after the 6-1 defeat against Portugal, players publicly questioned Yakin’s tactics and personnel choices. Then the latent feud with captain Xhaka. And now, after the 3-3 draw against Belarus, Xherdan Shaqiri says tellingly: “There is a lot wrong with this team.”

Source : Blick