Swiss Strikers: a serious dilemma

Kuhn’s footsteps lead straight into this quagmire. Switzerland has great quality and quantity in goal, in defence and in midfield: however, in attack it’s a different business.

Due to Frei’s injury Switzerland has played most of its games with one striker: either N’Kufo or Streller. The recent injury of the former has left Kuhn with 4 strikers of different age, skills and quality. Eren Derdiyok, 19, might be a surprise but might also be too young and too inexperienced for such a big event. Haeberli (33) has little, if not none, international experience and only has his exceptional year in Young Boys to count on. Finally Streller is a veteran of the Swiss team but he isn’t as good a striker as Alexander Frei, which explains the failure of his international career.

Following his bad injury Alex Frei seems to have recovered entirely, he recently stated: “It was a difficult perio, but I learned from my lessons, and I’ve improved now”.

Ludovic Magnin has made a very optimistic comment recently: “”We don’t have many strikers, it’s not a secret. But we also do know that the ones who are actually there are good enough to score, they’ve proved it in the past”.

A one-striker scheme would definitely include Hakan Yakin behind Alexander Frei. The Young Boys player was topscorer in the Swiss League this year and is out there to impress.