FC Zurich loses in Basel for the fourth time in a row. The Zurich team is in crisis - but not everyone at the club interprets the slump dramatically. Interim coach Dennis Hediger sees a lot of positives.
30.10.2025, 08:50
30.10.2025, 09:32
SDA
When microphones are thrust at Steven Zuber, the FC Zurich midfielder is often confrontational. It was no different late on Wednesday evening. In fact, the 34-year-old would probably have preferred to simply shuffle past the door to the interview zone unnoticed and disappear straight into the dressing room. In any case, after being asked for his assessment of this rainy evening of football in Basel's St. Jakob Park, he first asks the Zurich communications department whether he really needs to turn into this room.
Zuber is not let off the hook, and so a short time later he is standing in the room covered with grass carpeting, a handful of cameras and microphones in front of his face, all wanting to capture the words of the Zurich creative mind. A member of the media tells him that FCZ's performance in the classic against FC Basel was "wild as a bird". Whereupon Zuber asks for an explanation of what exactly is meant by this paraphrase.
Zuber is clearly not satisfied with the explanation that the Zurich team did little offensively and repeatedly made mistakes defensively. "Well, I don't know what kind of game you saw. We had a clear plan and it worked out well."
The argument continues: "But you lost 2-0," the journalist replies, to which Zuber says: "Yes, but we kept getting into the penalty area and created chances. We just didn't score any goals."
Magnin's truism does not prove true
The episode from the catacombs of the Basel stadium shows that footballers can sometimes have idiosyncratic interpretations of events. FC Zurich did not slither to another defeat on Wednesday as heroically fighting guests. Rather, the Zurich side were clearly inferior to the home team in every respect. And the fact that they did not have to travel home with a clearer defeat was only due to the fact that Basel almost negligently missed their big chances. Albian Ajeti, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marin Soticek all missed on their own in front of FCZ goalkeeper Yanick Brecher.
"Normally," said FCB coach Ludovic Magnin, "if you don't score goals, you lose games like this. That didn't prove to be the case today." In terms of the share of play and the expected goals calculated from this, Basel should have scored at least three times. For the Zurich team, this figure was just 0.6.
It is a further indication that Zuber's perception of this prestigious duel and of his own team's performance is somewhat overblown. Interim coach Dennis Hediger is also keen to emphasize the positives. His team has a lot of quality on the ball, he says. Or that the players move dynamically in their positions. "Up to the penalty area, we are at 100 percent of our potential and we also have a good presence in the opposition penalty area." In the dangerous area, however, Hediger believes that his team is currently only exploiting 90 percent of its potential and is not putting enough dangerous balls on goal.
Hediger's identification is audible
The 39-year-old has been in charge on an interim basis for the past two games after at least some of the team spoke out against continuing to work with Dutchman Mitchell van der Gaag. For the former midfielder and long-time captain of FC Thun, this is his first experience at Super League level. Until now, Hediger had only coached at junior level. First in Thun, then in Basel and since the beginning of 2024 in Zurich.
Even though he hasn't been working in Switzerland's largest city for long, life in Zurich already seems to have left its mark. When Hediger talks about football, his Bernese German is occasionally interspersed with Zurich German. Anyone who wants to could interpret this fact as a sign of identification, as maximum dedication in an effort to get the ailing city of Zurich back on track.
At times, says Hediger, his players succeeded well in breaking through Basel's pressing line. However, as against YB at the weekend (2:3), individual mistakes and risky back passes to goalkeeper Yanick Brecher repeatedly caused unnecessary danger. "We have to correct that immediately and play forward whenever possible."
Speaking of Brecher and speaking of going forward: When the FCZ captain stands in front of the microphones, it sounds completely different to his colleague Zuber. They hadn't managed to create any big chances. They conceded far too much at the back, the 32-year-old states. After this fourth defeat in a row and slipping to ninth place in the league table, he almost dictates a warning: "We're not doing well at the back and front. But we have to move forward now."
