With Murat Yakin, the mystery is something that settles in well. A way of not wanting to say much, so as not to reveal your cards. A desire to bring doubt to life. The obligation to prepare for everything, even if, over time, the coach has learned to at least spare his players from the element of surprise.
At the 2022 World Cup, it was on the same day of the round of 16 against Portugal that he warned that he would change his system to go from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2. Unwelcome, given the 6-1 defeat. During the last Euro, it was five days before the national team entered the fray against Hungary that Michel Aebischer learned that he would be reinvented as an outside left.
On Monday, on the eve of hosting Denmark, Murat Yakin conducted individual interviews and analyzed the 2-0 defeat in Serbia with his entire group. Has he already announced any changes for Tuesday evening (8:45 p.m.)? At a press conference, he did not completely rule out the possibility.
What could they be? A different system? Not sure: although in Leskovac, Switzerland finished the match in a 4-3-3 shape, we know to what extent its managers (Xhaka, Akanji) are keen on this very fluid 3-4-3. But this can be imagined with different profiles.
There is already a first question that arises: who will replace Silvan Widmer? The Mainz full-back is suspended, after receiving a second yellow card in the Nations League on Saturday. In the Swiss selection, no totally similar profile.
Against Serbia, two players occupied the right lane, after the departure of the holder at half-time: Dan Ndoye, then Edimilson Fernandes. These are the two main candidates. We also remember that, at the Euro, Widmer was suspended against Italy: Ndoye took his place. He had kept it against England. It’s a solution that works.
This would be digital change. But perhaps we need to think further. It would necessarily target Michel Aebischer: on the left, there is the feeling that the experience of the hybrid role of the Bologna player has encountered certain limits. How could it be replaced? There, Ndoye can also claim to occupy this role, with a different profile. The same if it were to be Ulisses Garcia who had to play. These are two possibilities. They must be taken into consideration.
It’s the corridors that make you think. The rest of the eleven opens up fewer variables: Fabian Rieder has many reasons to imagine returning to the team; Zeki Amdouni remains a significant technical guarantee in the absence of Ruben Vargas; Nico Elvedi does not really have a replacement in the selection available to Yakin.
Offensively, truth be told, Murat Yakin has few obvious choices. We can imagine all the possible solutions, there are very few really credible ones. Yakin, as open to surprise as he is, knows that. And he also knows that he has a lot to lose with a choice that is too eccentric.
