Expensive star troops in the relegation battle: FCB is threatened with the same fate as GC

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FC Basel in relegation battle? No joke, but stated by the president himself. At Blue, David Degen (40) made it clear after the 3-0 defeat against YB and the fall to last place in the rankings: “We are in a relegation battle. We must face it!” But is it that easy?

Rood-Blauw is not the first club to enter the transfer market with a big trowel and then end up at the bottom of the rankings in the autumn.

Relegation round instead of championship title with star ensemble

Flashback: In the early 1990s, the Grasshoppers were still the ultimate in Swiss football, the team was full of stars such as Marcel Koller, Giovane Elber, Alain Sutter, Murat Yakin and Ciriaco Sforza. When the ‘blond angel’ Heinz Hermann joined them in the summer of 1992, it was clear: anything other than the championship title would be too little.

“Any other goal would have been incredible,” recalls Urs Meier (62), one of the few players with a working-class mentality at the noble club at the time. In Meier’s eyes, that is exactly why what happened: “There were too many chefs and not enough Indians on the team.”

After a weak start to the season, Oldrich Svab was replaced on the sidelines by the great Leo Beenhakker. Vain. GC only wins five of the 22 games in the qualifying round, after a 1:2 in Bern it becomes an unimaginable fact: the star ensemble has to enter the relegation round. In this case, the catastrophe has been averted, but it’s still an embarrassing season for the Hoppers, who are used to success.

Parallels between GC and FCB

Meier: “Just talking about wanting to return to winning ways doesn’t help. You have to do something about it too. And when the pressure is on, the mental strength of every player comes into its own. At the time in the rankings, many top players were injured during this difficult phase. And when Beenhakker realized that passionate fighters and workers would bring him more into this situation, it was too late.

The parallels with the current FCB are clear: worst start to the season in decades. Prominent players who see red-blue as a way station to higher orders. And there was also a coaching change, which instead of the turnaround was followed by two 0-3 defeats against Lausanne-Ouchy and YB. If we extrapolate the current balance, FCB would not achieve four wins in the 33 rounds until the division into the championship and relegation rounds.

According to David Degen, a change in mentality is now needed: “There is now much more demand than fair-weather football. We have to get out of there as quickly as possible. The only way to achieve that is through hard work.”

FCZ-Held advises FCB to seek professional help

Clear words – but how do you implement them? Urs Meier, who led FCZ to the cup victory as a coach in 2014 and now works as a player’s agent, says with his experience from 1992: “You should not underestimate it. Getting out of the downward spiral usually takes longer than getting into it.”

And Meier advises the FCB to take a special measure: “I would call in professional help from outside. Led by a neutral person, players must clearly identify what is bothering them and preventing them from being successful. What they can do better as a team. And what solutions they see together in the field and want to implement. Ultimately, the players have to deliver the results. And that is only possible if they all join forces and focus on what is important.”

Source : Blick