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Som en del av Champions League fortsätter vi på Totaal Liverpool att ta tempen på våra motståndare och få lite ”inside information” från några av våra motståndares mest hängivna experter.

Det andra laget vi kör CL-kollen med på är schweiziska FC Basel 1893 som inlett lovande i ligan och vunnit 7 av deras inledande 10 matcher i Swiss Super League, en liga som de leder med 2 poäng.

1 FC Basel 10 7 1 2 23 14 9 22
2 FC Zürich 10 6 2 2 18 11 7 20
3 BSC Young Boys 10 5 3 2 18 12 6 18
4 FC Thun 10 5 2 3 18 15 3 17

I Champions League har det däremot gått desto tyngre. I den inledande matchen mot Real Madrid på Santiago Bernabeu blev det hela 5-1 i baken efter att Bale, Ronaldo och kompani haft lekstuga.

1 Real Madrid CF 1 1 0 0 5 1 4 3
2 Liverpool 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 3
3 Ludogorets 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
4 FC Basel 1 0 0 1 1 5 -4 0

I övrigt är det värt att notera att Basel inför den här säsongen bytt tränare till portugisen Paulo Sousa efter att under flera framgångsrika säsonger letts av Murat Yakin. Nye tränaren Sousa representerade under sin spelarkarriär en rad klubbar av hög dignitet, exempelvis Benfica, Sporting, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund och Inter. Han lade sedan skorna på hyllan år 2002 och började tre år senare att träna Portugals U16-landslag. Som tränare har Sousa sedan fortsatt med att träna allt ifrån engelska lag såsom Queens Park Rangers, Swansea, Leicester till Videoton och Maccabi Tel Aviv de senaste säsongerna.

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Allmän information:

Tränare: Paulo Sousa, sedan den 28:e maj 2014 (3-årskontrakt)
Arena: St. Jakob-Park (kapacitet 38 512)
Klubbens geografiska plats: Basel, Schweiz
Spelsystem: 3-3-1-3
Lagkapten: Marco Streller, FW, 33 år
Spelar i liga: Swiss Super League
Slutade förra säsongen på plats: 1:a
Kvalade sig till CL efter att ha slagit ut: Direktkvalificerade genom ligavinst

Transferfönstret 2014/15

In: 

#1 GK Tomáš Vaclík, Tjeckien, (från Sparta Prag)

#6 DF Walter Samuel, Argentina, (från Inter Milan)

#7 MF Luca Zuffi, Schweiz, (från FC Thun)

#11 MF Shkëlzen Gashi, Albanien, (från Grasshopper Club Zürich)

#14 FW Yoichiro Kakitani, Japan, (från Cerezo Osaka)

#25 FW Derlis González, Paraguay, (från S.L. Benfica)

Ut: 

GK Yann Sommer, Schweiz, (till Borussia Mönchengladbach)

MF David Degen, Schweiz, (avslutade sin fotbollskarriär)

MF Valentin Stocker, Schweiz, (till Hertha BSC)

DF Kay Voser, Schweiz, (till Fulham)

FW Admir Seferagić, Bosnien och Hercegovina, (till Schaffhausen)

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Resultat såhär långt:

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Expert-insyn

Q&A med Chris Wachtler, administratör för @FCBasel_English

1. What do you think of the season so far?

Generally the fans are happy, our football is getting more attractive under Sousa and the results have been mostly positive. There are still some issues within the defence and how we generally take it too easy after a 2-0 lead, but things are heading in the right direction. At the moment we’re leading the table with 2 points ahead of FC Zurich and with 6 wins out of 7 games, losing one, probably the worst game we played this season though. We also advanced in the Swiss Cup after a 4-0 win against a 6th division team, but we played a 2nd or 3rd team, so it’s all ok.

The team and the fans are generally very happy with the draw of the Champions League groups too, tickets were basically sold out within hours.

2. How does your strongest team look like (the team that without injuries will face Liverpool)?

It’s really difficult to tell whom will be in our strongest team, Sousa has generally been rotating to see what players work well with others and to see whom might be suited for a permanent position in the squad. Generally I think a first 11 / 14 (stay with me) has been showing themselves over the past few weeks. Generally we play a 3-4-3, or 4-3-3 while the opponent is in possession.

I would see this line up as our first 11:

Vaclik

Degen – Schär – Suchy

Serey Die – Diaz – Xhaka

Delgado

Gonzalez – Streller – Gashi

Xhaka will move back into the left back position during attacks of the opponents or into the CB position while Suchy takes the left (varies from game to game at the moment) Serey Die then moves inwards towards Diaz, both form the defensive midfield, Delgado is more of a playmaker, moving the ball up front. Gonzalez, Streller and Gashi make up the front 3, especially Gonzalez and Gashi will move back from time to time to pick up balls or stuff the wholes in the midfield when needed. Streller is the typical finisher, as you’ve seen before against Man Utd and Chelsea.

Following players are basically interchangeable in this line up.

For Gonzalez or Gashi -> Kakitani
For Xhaka -> Aliji (in that case we might play with a stable 4 man defence)
For Serey Die or Delgado -> Zuffi

Just a disclaimer, I can’t predict the our line up on that day, something totally different might pop up, our team is fairly versatile for Swiss standards.

3. What do you think of your clubs silly season? (Incoming players and players leaving)

We lost Sommer, our former keeper, to Mönchengladbach, he was recently appointed the Swiss number one (so for the Euro Qualification game against England too), while Stocker moved on to Hertha Berlin, Basel let him go for a fairly low price, as it was his wish after 7 years in Basel to finally try his luck in Germany. Further losses weren’t as bad and were easily replaceable. In addition our Manager, Murat Yakin left the team after 2 Championship titles, generally because the relations with the team weren’t as good anymore and the lack of attractive play even in games where we have to win (we drew 15 games out of 36 last year in the Swiss League).

Our singings were more impressive though, we managed to pick up Japanese talent, Yoichiro Kakitani, who was hunted by a few bigger clubs in Europe, such as Dortmund, Florence and Bremen (according to rumours), he started well at our team with 2 goals and one assists after 5 games, 3 of which he was a somewhat late substitute. He is often compared to Kagawa (at least he receive the same hype over in Japan). We also signed the Top Scorer of the previous Swiss season, Shkelzen Gashi, the Albanian international continued where he ended with at Grasshoppers Zurich, scoring 5 goals and assisting 3 in 8 games (one a Cup game). Zuffi was a further singing out of Switzerland from FC Thun, interestingly enough his Father was a major part of our promotion team of 1994.
We received another improvement to our team with Ahmed Hamoudi, many in Egypt see him has a talent similar to Salah, who made the move to Chelsea FC last winter. He hasn’t played yet in the league, as he joined the team fairly late. A further and probably internationally most famous signing was that of Walter Samuel from Inter Milan, the 36 year old’s goal will be to improve our defence when needed and offer the necessary experience in those vital moments.
In addition to all those singings we also added 17 year old Breel Embolo from our youth squad to our first team, probably one of the most talented players our Youth system has generated.

4. Which signing are you/the fans most excitited about?

Kakitani, he has been very hyped, his shirt has been the best selling, and even a Japanese TV channel has bought the TV rights to our game just to see him play. He’s got talent and in those few games he has played for us, he has shown that already. There also has been a great increase in Japanese tourists visiting our home games, it’s quite impressive and somewhat overwhelming what’s going on right now.

5. Who will be your key player vs Liverpool?

Vaclik and the defence, Liverpool’s defence isn’t as good as it should be. I’m certain we will receive chances to score, what we can’t allow is to receive goals, otherwise it’s gonna be very difficult to snag a win or a draw against such a good team.