How FC Basel are planning long-term with Alex Frei – tactical analysis

After being handed the FC Basel job ahead of the 2022/23 season, Alex Frei has been handed what seems like a long-term project. Frei was previously an FC Basel player between 2009-2013 so knows the club and the area well.

Having just led FC Winterthur to promotion in the 2021/22 Swiss Challenge League, Frei was appointed coach of Basel along with assistant and former Basel player Davide Callà. The pair had a successful period at Winterthur and have started okay with Basel.

Over the last four years, Basel have had five different managers. There was a growing frustration amongst fans with one fan stating ‘in the long term one trainer after the other will simply come and go and you won’t build anything up. The previous manager was sacked due to the unsatisfactory development of the first team.

Alex Frei is a relatively young coach and has worked his way up the coaching ladder. His previous roles include sporting director, youth team manager and interim manager, all at a range of clubs.

Over the summer, Basel had 19 new arrivals and 21 departures, making it a busy first transfer window, including former PSG and Leeds United striker Jean-Kévin Augustin. The average age of the squad has been brought right down to 23.1 years old. The long-term project being implemented is enough to excite any manager or football fan.

This tactical analysis will look at the tactics used by the former Borussia Dortmund man in the 2022/23 campaign so far. In this analysis, we will delve into the tactics that will be used to guide Basel to a high finish.

The data

The graphic below is Basels percentile ranks amongst other teams in the 2022/23 Credit Suisse Super League. It covers three main categories with a range of subcategories. The pink coloured segments represent the attacking data, the yellow is possession and the white is defending data.

Attacking data 

Basel ranks relatively high for goals per 90, xG per 90 and opponent penalty area entries per 90. Their style of play heavily involves them entering the box whether that is centrally or out wide. The data supports their attacking style of play and shows they can score goals with relative ease.

Their crosses per 90 rank is extremely low however, they do tend to cross the ball following the isolation of their wide men against the opposition fullback. They tend to cross the ball from the right-hand side and are extremely accurate with the majority of their crosses entering the six-yard box.

Possess

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