Switzerland Women’s poor run of form: The central causes and how they can recover – scout report

Following an average FIFA World Cup 2023 participation that saw them getting excluded in the Round of 16 at the hands of the Spanish, Switzerland Women continued their disappointing run of form. They lost all of their matches that followed the World Cup. In other words, Switzerland lost four games in the UEFA Womens Nations League so far, once against Italy, twice against Spain while conceding a huge number of goals (five in Spain and seven when playing at home in Letzigrund), and once against Sweden. 

This Spanish nightmare made things worse for Switzerland as it made the poor run of form become even more problematic, as conceding seven goals in a single game raises eyebrows and questions about Switzerlands defensive abilities and organisation. Moreover, not being able to score more than one goal in four games requires some investigation as well and puts the teams attacking performance into question.

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will therefore look at what is going wrong for Switzerland so far this year, identify their weaknesses, and aim at proposing some solutions and ways to improve the complicated situation. The analysis will also include a look at Switzerlands actual strikers and the ones who could perform better at the moment while taking the teams tactics into consideration.

Switzerlands defensive weaknesses

To begin with, Switzerlands defensive issues can be considered as worrying at the moment, knowing that the average number of goals conceded per game is becoming higher than the standards, which causes constant problems for the team and undermines their attacking positives.  

Switzerland currently concede 1.43 goals per match, knowing that this average does not take into consideration the heavy recent 7-1 loss against Spain. Therefore, head coach Inka Grings must address the weaknesses leading to conceding goals regularly and in different ways. 

Limiting the average number of goals per game would undoubtedly help Switzerland a lot in winning more points and especially in having more confidence in the attacking phase. It is, in fact, the main issue that needs to be improved as soon as possible to not suffer from other painful losses.

One of the recurrent defensive issues for Switzerland is related to individual marking, especially during set pieces. The teams defence often fails to mark properly and apply tight disturbance to their direct opponents on these occasions and, therefore, concede goals or dangerous opportunities.

A similar action occurred recently when Switzerland faced Sweden in the UEFA Womens Nations League, and the Swiss conceded a goal due to poor marking from both Lia Wälti and Alayah Pilgrim, who could have done more to cover for her teammate in this action since she was not even marking anyone.

Being more attentive to opponents movements is necessary during such actions, and not letting these players move at their backs is essential during such set-pieces. In addition, the fact that neither the defensive line players nor the head coach noticed that two Swedish players were unmarked at the far post is worrying, and such situations need to be addressed in training so as not to become recurrent. 

Moreover, Switzerland have been lacking fluidity and concentration during the build-up from the back, and some passing mistakes cost them too much, especially when these wrong passes are made in dangerous areas, such as in this example against Spain. While being aware of Spains dangerous high pressing, Switzerlands defensive line should be more prudent when building up from the back, and going for the more secure pass/cross should be the priority against such dynamic teams. 

This goal was conceded due to a wrong pass from the goalkeeper, Elvira Herzog. The intention was to pass the ball to Noelle Maritz, but Barcelonas Mariona Caldentey was aware of Herzogs obvious passing choice and could intercept the pass. Therefore, a lot more attention is needed in this regard, and improving the teams overall passing accuracy in their own half would be a helpful solution as well.