Breitenreiter’s rise, Foda’s fall and Henriksen’s healing: The FC Zürich saga of 2021/22-2022/23 – scout report

Go back to the summer of 2007 and you’ll find FC Zürich perched atop the Swiss footballing landscape, having just won back-to-back top-flight titles under now-former Borussia Dortmund and, most recently, OGC Nice boss Lucien Favre.

In 2007/08, under Bernard Challandes, Zürich would finish third before the Swiss coach then helped them to return to the top of Switzerland’s Super League in 2008/09.

The team from the famous banking city situated on the Limmat River were a real force to be reckoned with in Switzerland’s domestic game at this time, enjoying a dominant period in the late noughties. That league title under Challandes in 2008/09, however, was the last one FCZ would win for over a decade.

The 2010s were a tumultuous period for the Swiss club, featuring mid-to-lower table finishes and even relegation. By the end of the 2021/22 campaign, though, Zürich returned to their late-noughties heights, winning the Swiss Super League once again under the guidance of André Breitenreiter.

This season has been more of a crash back to reality for FCZ, as they find themselves sitting in eighth place (out of 10 teams) at the time of writing, just four points off bottom-placed Winterthur.

Eighth is the same place they’d finished in 2020/21, making the early 2020s a polarising sandwich for the club, with a historic title victory falling between two lacklustre campaigns.

This team-focused scout report will provide a tactical analysis of the Swiss club’s last couple of seasons, with a particular focus on their struggles in the 2022/23 campaign. Our article will provide an in-depth analysis of some key elements of the tactics used by the different managers Zürich have had in this time and a comparison of these coaches’ respective approaches at Stadion Letzigrund.

Head coach comparison

Title-winning Breitenreiter spent just one season with FCZ, but it was a full campaign in its entirety, at least — he’s the only manager who was present in their successful 2021/22 season. The German coach ended the campaign with an average of 2.11 points per game from the club’s 36 league fixtures last term, seeing his side score 78 goals and concede 46.

Breitenreiter would go on to depart Switzerland for his native Germany, taking the reins at Bundesliga side Hoffenheim for 2022/23. That tenure didn’t replicate the fairytale that his time with Zürich proved to be, as the 49-year-old was relieved of his duties with Hoffenheim in February having guided his side to just 1.14 points per game, leaving them in 14th place in Germany’s top-flight.

The Zürich/Breitenreiter split has transpired in an equally miserable fashion for Zürich. Breitenreiter’s replacement, Franco Foda, ended up taking charge of just eight Swiss Super League games at the beginning of 2022/23, earning a dismal 0.25 points per game in that time. Foda’s Zürich scored just six league goals, conceding 19.

He performed slightly better in Europe, hammering Linfield 5-0 over two legs and overcoming Scottish Premiership side Hearts 3-1 on aggregate to ensure FCZ made it to the UEFA Europa League group stages and received the healthy cash injection that comes along with European football.

However, perhaps speaking from a pessimistic or critical viewpoint, they are teams Zürich should be beating and while they make Foda’s tenure, overall, look a lot better than it was in reality, these victories weren’t enough to save Foda from the sacking that the team’s devastating start to their first title defence in 13 seasons cultivated.

Zürich youth team coach Genesio Collatrella took charge for two games following Foda’s departure before former Midtjylland boss Bo Henriksen arrived in Switzerland.

Under Henriksen, who won a Danish cup with Midtjylland in 2021/22 and guided them to second place in Denmark’s Superliga, FCZ have earned a more respectable 1.53 points per game in 17 fixtures, (the third-best points-per-game ratio of any manager in the Swiss Super League this season) scoring 21 league goals and conceding 20.

In other words, Zürich have conceded just one more goal in 17 league games under Henriksen than they conceded in eight with Foda at the helm — a stark contrast.

Defensive analysis

So, let’s take a look at Zürich’s defence this season, both under Foda and Henriksen, to see what the main issues have been and what Henriksen has done to address them since his arrival.

Firstly, FCZ mainly lined up in a 3-4-3/3-4-1-2 shape under Breitenreiter last season and have generally lined up with the same broad shape this season. However, there was plenty of experimentation during Foda’s short tenure as they scrambled for a winning formula, with different variations of four-at-the-back shapes making several appearances.

This experimentation was ultimately unsuccessful, with Foda’s Zürich drawing two and losing six of their eight games in all competitions lining up with four at the back.

Zürich’s average defensive line height and defensive territory in 2022/23 hasn’t changed much from Foda’s tenure to Henriksen’s tenure, though Henriksen’s FCZ have defended with an ever so slightly higher defensive line.

This defensive territory map is pretty consistent with what we saw from the Swiss club under Breitenreiter last season too, though the defensive line, again, is a bit more similar to what we’ve seen under Henriksen this term than what we saw under Foda.