Bought wrong?: The new FCB attackers don’t work

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A slight upward trend can be seen in Basel under the new coach Fabio Celestini. But FCB is still at the bottom of the table. Heiko Vogel said in September that the newly formed squad had “the potential to win titles”. “I am convinced that this quality is better than last season,” he says in an interview with “BZ”.

The new attackers do not score

Only: while FCB stormed into the semi-finals of the Conference League in the spring, it is now in turmoil. The bloodshed was extreme, especially in the offensive (Amdouni, Zeqiri, Ndoye, Males, Fink). The result: Basel has the second weakest attack in the league this season (19 goals). With the exception of GC and Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy (five each), all teams have scored more striker goals than FCB (two from Augustin, one each from Malone, Jovanovic and Hunziker).

Last year there were 11 goals from attackers at the same time. Only in the second half of the season did the FCB attackers turn up the heat and eventually the striker scored thirty goals in the competition alone. To compensate for this, FCB has spent a lot of money. 2.80 million for Jovanovic (Tel Aviv), 3 million for Barry (Beveren), 2 million for Malone (Augsburg). But the expensive new attackers have not yet had an impact.

Bought wrong?

If you look closely, the question arises whether those responsible for FCB actually purchased the right profiles. Although Jovanovic and Zeqiri are similar – both classic strikers with strong points in the penalty area, although Jovanovic is a bit better in terms of play – no suitable replacement was found for Amdouni.

That is also difficult. Amdouni brings a complete profile. Nati’s shooting star has strong points in finishing and great playing quality in Zone 2. ‘False nines’ like him are rare – and therefore difficult to replace. One thing is clear: neither Malone nor Barry are this replacement. Both have different requirements.

Barry has strengths athletically (2.58 progressive runs per 90 minutes). He is dangerous when he starts explosively in depth and looks for the finish (3.67 shots per 90 minutes). However, with the ball at his feet he is limited – for example in passing and technical purity. Thanks to his athleticism, his profile is still interesting from a perspective, although still very raw. As a type, Malone is slightly closer to Amdouni, his strengths lie in dribbling (5.96 dribbles per 90 minutes) and passing (high passing volume, solid precision). He can still improve a lot in the box, one of Amdouni’s master disciplines.

Abandoned by the collective

The new FCB attackers are a different type of player than the top performers who left. You can’t put the Amdouni template on Barry and expect him to do the same as his predecessor, their profiles are too different for that.

The lack of offensive output can also be explained by problems in creating chances. In a sense, the strikers are victims of the weak Basel collective. Where an average of 1.7xG per match was achieved last season, this is now 1.2xG. The negative playful development can also be seen with key passes (3.04 per 90 minutes vs. 2.45 per 90 minutes). If the teammates perform, the attackers will also score more often.

Source : Blick