FIFA World Cup 2018: Switzerland

Switzerland managed to win nine out of ten in the qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup in Russia. But the lost in the last game against Portugal forced them into a play-off. There they beat Northern Ireland 1-0 on aggregate to qualify for Russia 2018. Going into the tournament Vladimir Petkovic men will hope to build on their performance in Brazil 2014. There they went out to Argentina in the last eight. Lets take a look at the Alp nation.

Switzerlands squad

Coach

Vladimir Petkovic

Vladimir Petkovic was born in Sarajevo and played professionally in the former Yugoslavia including three spells at FK Sarajevo. He then spent twelve years in Switzerland before becoming a coach. He spent fourteen years coaching in the Alps before moving to Turkey and then Rome to coach Lazio. He won Coppa Italia at Lazio in 2013, beating Roma in the final. Petkovic was appointed as Swiss coach in December 2013 due to take over after the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This agreement prompted Lazio to sack him ten days later. After taking the reigns of the Swiss team, Petkovic led them into the 2016 Euros. He then led them into the last eight in France but lost on penalties to Poland. Now successfully leading Switzerland to Russia 2018 too, Petkovic will hope to lead his adopted country far.

Goalkeepers
Yann Sommer, Roman Bürki, Gregor Kobel, Yvon Mvogo

Defenders
Stephan Lichtsteiner, Fabian Schär, Johan Djourou, Ricardo Rodriguez, Silvan Widmer, Michael Lang, Francois Moubandje, Nico Elvedi, Manuel Akanji

Midfielders
Valon Behrami, Gelson Fernandes, Granit Xhaka, Blerim Dzemaili, Steven Zuber, Remo Freuler, Denis Zakaria, Edemilson Fernandes

Forwards
Mario Gavranovic, Breel Embolo, Haris Seferovic, Josip Drmic

Note: Thats 26 players above. Three will be removed from that list on June 4th.

Petkovics tactics

Switzerland under Petkovic is a very attacking team. They look to dominate games with the ball and always try to play out from the back. The formation is most often 4-2-3-1. Petkovic did however opt for a 4-3-2-1 in the recent 6-0 demolition of Panama. In Russia however it seems likely Petkovic will opt for the more familiar 4-2-3-1.

As stated, Switzerland looks to build from the back. They split their two centre-backs wide and push the full-backs high. The two central midfielders make themselves available to pick the ball up from defenders and then progress the ball forward. The setup can be seen below (full-backs in yellow).

Further up the pitch, the wingers move inside and search for short passing combinations with the number 10 and the striker. The flanks are largely left open for the two very attacking full-backs. Below we see the attacking setup. Ive highlighted the two central midfielders in yellow and the full-backs in black. The four highest players are the two wingers, the number 10 and the striker. This centred approach hopes to create short passing combinations between the front four. This forces the opponent to centralize their shape, leaving the flanks open if its impossible to progress the ball centrally. On this occasion, the ball is played into the striker who flicks it through for a teammate to score.

This setup is very attacking and basic