First point for Henriksen, both teams disappoint

It’s late Friday afternoon when Ancillo Canepa discovers the footballer in himself. During the conversation in his office, he suddenly stands up and demonstrates remarkably dynamically what he imagines as consistent, aggressive defensive play.

The FCZ President will be 70 years old in a few months, and he is still on the football field from time to time. Now he’s bouncing on his front feet, indicating how to put your body between the ball and your opponent, and telling a story from around ten years ago.

At that time, FCZ was going through difficult times, it is said to happen, and he, Canepa, went into the dressing room to speak to the players. His message: as an “old man” he would not have let himself be played like that at the age of 60 – or at least showed appropriate body tension on the pitch.

The conversation with Canepa is about how unfavorably the FC Zurich footballers behaved the night before in the 0:5 defeat in the Europa League in Eindhoven against PSV. How Cheick Condé just watches the second goal. How Marc Hornschuh, like an observer, repeatedly lacks aggressiveness. How inadequate the FCZ defense has been – in principle since the beginning of the season.

In the larger context, it is about being weaker than a “top European team”, as Canepa classifies PSV Eindhoven. But that you never forget to always fight with the greatest commitment. Or as the new FCZ coach Bo Henriksen would say: “That you die on the pitch for each other.”

How can the Young Boys play so unimaginative with their strong squad?

Two days after the visit to Canepa, the scene takes place in Letzigrund, FCZ meets YB on Sunday, master against leader. After the defeat in Eindhoven, it is the second game with Bo Henriksen for the Zurich team. After FC Winterthur’s 1-0 win against GC the night before, they are already five points behind the second-bottom place in the Super League.

The FCZ and YB have won the last five championship titles in this league, but there is nothing to be seen in the direct duel. At some point you hope that at least a little more will happen than a week earlier when FCZ and Winterthur were 0-0. Bad pass follows bad pass. Both teams do not present a comprehensible plan of how a goal should be scored. The standards are poorly executed, the pace is modest, the level extremely low.

This time, the FCZ is trying to never forget to fight with the greatest commitment. And because YB is far from being a top European team, but simply hits the ball long and high and far forward surprisingly often with very optimistic wishes, fundamental questions soon arise: who should score a goal here? And how? Why do the Young Boys have such a strong squad, but play so harmlessly and unimaginatively again with coach Raphael Wicky? And above all: Is the quality of FC Zurich really not better – and was last season simply a unique, fairytale-like high-altitude flight?

Last year’s FCZ coach André Breitenreiter sat in the stands on the Letzigrund as a spectator on Sunday. He took the success and his plans with him to Hoffenheim, he’s doing well in the Bundesliga too. His former players, it should be mentioned again, act in solidarity against YB, they defend consistently, and don’t let up towards the end of the game – even if they have had tough days including a trip to the Netherlands, while the opponent from Bern has spent a whole week could prepare in peace.

Breitenreiter will also have wondered what happened to his master players. The FCZ was nowhere near able to replace the key players Ousmane Doumbia and Assan Ceesay who left. Doumbia is missing as ball thief and aggressive leader, Ceesay as goalgetter and pacemaker. Zurich signed a number of footballers in the summer whose profiles looked interesting on paper, but so far there has been little of this quality on the pitch.

No FCZ master player is in good shape this season

And of the convincing regulars under Breitenreiter, every field player has recently disappointed. Defenders Mirlind Kryeziu, Fidan Aliti and Becir Omeragic formed a masterful back three – now they make mistakes, are out injured, are insecure and are on the bench. This also applies to last season’s brilliant wingers Nikola Boranijasevic and Adrián Guerrero. For playmaker Antonio Marchesano. For the veteran Blerim Dzemaili.

It is Bo Henriksen’s difficult task to uncover this team’s buried potential. The coach sees the 0-0 win against YB as a success and praises the fighting spirit and passion. He’s seen players who want to die for each other. But Henriksen also noticed that his team could improve on the offensive.

At some point, FC Zurich will have to come up with ideas again on how to score goals. He plays in Basel on Thursday and in the derby against GC on Sunday. The Young Boys, on the other hand, are in first place, but this says more about their opponents than they would like. Which could close the gap to last season: when FCZ was also allowed to play in a frenzy because no other team was convincing.