Bayer and Fischer coaches boost Swiss hockey

Patrick Fischer (left) and Marco Bayer are the ambassadors of this new generation of Swiss coaches.Image: watson

For the first time, local coaches shape our national hockey and make it better than ever. Marco Bayer and Patrick Fischer are the symbols.

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Marco Bayer hoisted the ZSC Lions to the rank of number one in Europe and led them to keep their title in National League. It is therefore logical that there remains at the band of Zurichois until 2027, without being returned to the firm team (GCK Lions).

The stake was size

Marco Bayer brilliantly overcome an extreme situation: arrived at the Head of the team unexpectedly at the end of December, after the withdrawal of his predecessor Marc Crawford for health reasons, He had to deal with maximum expectations. Any other result that a new title would have been considered a disappointment.

Marco Bayer celebrated the title in National League at the head of the ZSC Lions. image: Keystone

He also had to manage an exceptional double charge: winning both the Champions League and the national championship in a few weeks is an almost impossible mission.

Like Marco Bayer, Lars Leuenberger has also proven himself in an extreme situation -crowned champion with Bern as “emergency coach” and, this season, winner of the Spengler Cup and semi-finalist of the play-offs with Gottéron. But neither at the time in Bern, nor today in Friborg, he had the opportunity to remain principal coach.

Despite his very good season on the Gottéron bench, Lars Leuenberger cannot remain chief coach.Image: keystone

Psychology and experience

Marco Bayer has the chance to lead the pennant team of an extremely professional club. The success is not guaranteed. One of the keys lies in an intelligent adaptation of the style of leadership. A team made up of many strong experienced personalities needs management. But no lessons, and even less in a condescending tone. The coach is not a dictator, but a moderator. This word, of Latin origin, means “driver” and comes from moderatewhich means “moderate”, “contain”, “settle” and “reconcile”.

Formulated in a more popular way: directing the players with a long leash, while having the right instinct to tighten the reins at the right time. And, as a coach, bring the good adjustments to the team, relevant tactical choices, adequate management of emotions and energies, to make the most of it. This is what Marco Bayer has accomplished in a remarkable way, thanks to an immense knowledge of hockey, the tactics and the character of the players, which he has accumulated over the years.

Marco Bayer has perfectly managed communication with his players. image: Keystone

The Zurichois acquired this experience throughout his player career, assistant coach, chief coach or sports director, both among juniors and adults. In other words: he learned his job in depth for years. Not only in theory, but especially by an irreplaceable field experience.

Since the end of December, the role of Marco Bayer within the ZSC Lions, very well provided in all positions, was more akin to that of a national coach: he had to get the most out of the group entrusted to him. He had hardly had time to train or experiment.

From this fall, its role will evolve. The objectives have been achieved, the intensity will then be less than during the months of February, March and April. The breathlessness of the past few weeks will give way to a slightly more posed daily life. In this phase, it will be inevitable to tighten the reins from time to time.

The months of September, October, November, December and January can thus prove to be just as difficult – or even more dangerous – for a coach than the intensity of the months of February, March and April.

Of the talents victims of the lack of structures

In Langnau and Ambri, Thierry Paterlini and Luca Cereda also demonstrate, in a close collaboration with their sports directors, that they are able to take up this challenge. We almost forgot that in Davos, it was a Swiss, Christian Wohlwend, who released the invasive shadow team of the legendary coach Arno Del Curto.

The more professional the structures of a club, the more the collaboration with the sports management around the sports director is fluid, the more realistic the objectives, the more simple the work of the coach becomes. In Geneva, Jan Cadieux failed in the regular season after a title of Swiss champion and a victory in the Champions League, Especially because Servette still does not have structures worthy of a stable champion organization.

Cadieux is now a national coach for under 20s and the question is not whether, but when he returns to train a national League team.

Jan Cadieux was the victim of the lack of structures in Geneva-Servette. Image: KEYSTONE

And if Michael Liniger – whose profile is comparable to that of Thierry Paterlini or Luca Cereda – fails next season in Zug, it will above all be the failure of management, represented by Patrick Lengwiler and Reto Kläy, who has fueled large expectations without investing seriously in the team, almost negligently.

He is not contradictory with the success of Swiss coaches that Luca Gianinazzi has completely failed Lugano: as a player, he has never exceeded a secondary role in the second division. He had no experience as a professional level, he had only led to junior teams. In Lugano, Ticino was forced to pass the control exam without having followed the prior training – his baggage was empty. Players have never really taken it seriously.

In Lugano, Luca Gianinazzi was released in the arena without preparation.Image: keystone

Entrusting him with the first team was a touching mixture of “Romanticism at the Ambri” and naivety of the management. It is now in Visp, in the second division, that he begins his apprenticeship, with a great future possible before him.

Inspirations and a new generation

Twenty years ago, our hockey culture was dominated by foreign coaches. Sometimes Canadians, sometimes Swedes, Finns, from time to time Czechs, and occasionally, as an exception, a Swiss. Our hockey has nourished the crossing of these various foreign philosophies.

But recent successes on the international scene – victories in the Champions League, world championship finals – are now due to emancipation from foreign coaches. To the emergence of an entire generation of local coaches, endowed with their own philosophy.

An evolution embodied by Patrick Fischer, who enabled this Swiss school to unravel at international level with three finals at the World Cups: in 2013 as assistant to Sean Simpson, in 2018 and 2024 as principal coach. It is therefore the magic of Swiss coaches – and no longer foreign coaches.

Patrick Fischer is the symbol of this new generation of successful Swiss coaches. image: Keystone

And it makes sense: who knows our mentality better and the specifics of our hockey than the Swiss themselves?

Adaptation in French: Yoann Graber