Nati coach Murat Yakin talks about the luxury problem of Denis Zakaria in the football talk Heimspiel on blue Sport. Could the Monaco captain become a permanent fixture in the Swiss central defense at the World Cup?
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- With Denis Zakaria, national team coach Murat Yakin has a luxury problem in central midfield.
- In the friendly against Norway, Yakin experimented with a new system. Zakaria played as a central defender instead of a defensive midfielder.
- In the football talk show Heimspiel on blue Sport, the national team coach revealed: "This plan has actually been in place for a long time."
In the friendly against Norway at the end of March, Nati coach Murat Yakin experimented with an alternative system, a 3-4-3 with Denis Zakaria alongside Manuel Akanji and Nico Elvedi. The game ended 0-0 and, defensively at least, Yakin was able to see that his idea could work.
With Erling Haaland, the Swiss defense stopped a world-class striker cold. The 25-year-old goalscorer managed little or nothing against Akanji, Zakaria and Elvedi. This gives hope for the World Cup and gives the national team coach a lot of flexibility. Or will Zakaria even become a regular central defender for the tournament in the summer?
Yakin: "You create a place for good players"
"This plan has actually been in place for a long time," Yakin revealed in the football talk show Heimspiel on blue Sport. Due to absences and injuries, it simply never materialized until now. As the conversation progresses, it quickly becomes clear that Yakin is reluctant to do without Zakaria as part of the starting line-up in the summer.
"We are overstaffed in the center of midfield. Of course it would be a luxury solution to bring Denis off the bench, but Denis is extremely important. You create a system or a place for good players so that they can help us succeed."
The extent to which the national team coach will actually convert the defensive midfielder should become clearer in May and June. Switzerland will then test against Jordan in St.Gallen (31.05.) and against Australia in San Diego (06.06.) under World Cup conditions.
The national team will then start the tournament a week later, on June 13, against Qatar.
