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With only 1 win from 6 games, Basel had a disastrous start to the Super League. And now Lucerne, of all places, has the team of the hour waiting.
The glory days of FC Basel are miles away. The reality on the Rhine knee looks bleak. On Sunday, FCB’s decline reached a new low with the 2-3 defeat at newly promoted Yverdon-Sport. The fact that Basel has more games (6) than points (4) after a good 2 months of the Super League would have been unthinkable not so long ago.
How much time does Schultz have left?
Basel wanted to launch (another) restart this season, with Timo Schultz as a guide. But the German coach has not yet managed the turnaround at “Red-Blue”. And after the devastating results early in the season, the question arises as to how much time Schultz still has to turn things around.
When asked whether he still felt any support from the club’s management, Schultz answered dryly: “Yes.” The 46-year-old speaks of a critical exchange that he is having with those responsible at FCB. “That’s normal and it would be strange if it weren’t so,” says Schultz.
English week more of a blessing than a curse
As a coach, you are usually happy when there is enough time between two games for recovery and tactical adjustments. In the case of FC Basel, this does not apply in this case. Thursday’s game against Lucerne offers FCB the chance to silence its critics, at least for a few days. But that requires a victory without any ifs or buts, and Schultz knows that: “We need results now.”
The FCL, probably the strongest team in the Super League, is coming to St. Jakob-Park. And someone who knows how to win in the “Joggeli”. The Central Swiss team won the last two direct duels in Basel. On paper there isn’t much going for FCB, but that doesn’t bother Schultz in any way. “Because of the numbers, we won’t lose the right to win a home game against FC Luzern,” the coach makes it clear.
Done with excuses, but don’t panic
While Schultz doesn’t see FCB as outsiders against Lucerne, Captain Fabian Frei believes that this new role wouldn’t be that bad for his team: “Even if I much prefer to be the favorite,” adds the veteran. Frei makes no secret of the fact that the start of the season was anything but good, but there hasn’t been so much play yet that one has to “fall into absolute panic.”
Nevertheless, the 34-year-old appeals to each of his teammates and himself to question their own performance. Frei no longer accepts the excuse that the many mutations in the squad require a lot of time for the mechanisms to take effect: “It is clear that after so many changes at the start of the season everything can work out 100 percent. But that shouldn’t be an excuse for poor performance.”