New Basel coach Stephan Lichtsteiner compares FCB to his former club Juventus. He talks about pressure, but sees himself as the right man to meet the high expectations.
blue News summarizes for you
- Stephan Lichtsteiner takes over as the new coach of FC Basel and sees the challenging task as a great opportunity despite his lack of coaching experience at the highest level.
- The ex-Juve professional emphasizes the pressure to succeed at FCB and compares it to that at Juventus, where he had to win titles as a player.
- In an intensive week, he has to prepare the team for three crucial games, and he wants to bring in clear ideas and leadership qualities.
There is great interest in the FCB media center. After all, Basel has signed Stephan Lichtsteiner, one of the most successful Swiss footballers in history, as its new coach. The 100-plus Swiss international won countless titles with Juventus in his heyday - but as a coach he is still almost a nobody. He worked as an assistant coach for the U18 national team, then as a youth coach at FC Basel and most recently in the 1st division at Wettswil-Bonstetten.
blue News asks the 42-year-old whether he has thought about the fact that the step from Wettswil to the current champions is a huge one: "Sure, ideally you've been training somewhere for three years, have the team ready and have had two months of preparation. But the situation is what it is. I've been given the chance and I can see that the challenge is enormous."
Nevertheless, Lichtsteiner also states that he has already gained experience as a coach and is now ready for the FC Basel challenge: "It's the risk I want to take and I will try to make the most of the opportunities."
The week of truth
On Monday afternoon, FC Basel announced that they were parting ways with head coach Ludovic Magnin, and a few hours later Stephan Lichtsteiner was introduced as his successor. The former defender says that the last few days have also been very intense for him, as everything has happened very quickly: "I've already given a lot of thought to how I want to approach things. I don't have much time to prepare for these three games, so I have to get to work with clear ideas."
FC Basel now face crucial matches in three competitions in the space of a week. On Thursday, they face Viktoria Pilsen in the Europa League in a bid to reach the knockout phase after all, then just three days later they face Super League leaders FC Thun and just three days after that their opponents in the Cup quarter-final are FC St. Gallen.
Lichtsteiner explains his approach as follows: "The focus is to give the team options that I think we can use to hurt the opponent." However, an important aspect is also to empathize with the team, as a change of coach is never easy for the team: "I've experienced this myself as a player and it's also about the overall management of the team."
His idea is to develop a game with FCB in which everyone knows what they have to do. In general, the aim is to exploit the opponent's weak points and dominate the game.
Learned from Conte and Allegri
During his active career, Lichtsteiner played for Juventus Turin from 2011 to 2018, winning seven championships in a row and the cup four times. He himself speaks of the wealth of experience he gained during this time and draws a comparison with FCB: "You can compare Juventus with Basel. They are both clubs where you have enormous pressure." You need a certain prerequisite to be a player or coach in Basel: "You have the pressure to win titles here. I think that suits me."
During his time at the Italian record champions, Lichtsteiner was coached by the extremely successful Antonio Conte and Massimilliano Allegri and looks back: "They both gave me a lot of things that I can use now as a coach."
Lichtsteiner will be able to prove his talent as a coach for the first time on the big stage on Thursday in the Europa League home game against Viktoria Pilsen. blue Sport will broadcast the game live, kick-off is at 21:00.
