Senderos, who is now a high performance specialist in Arsène Wenger’s talent development scheme at Fifa, believes England are favourites to beat Switzerland only on paper and is waiting to see Gareth Southgate’s team click.
“I think England in a big tournament will always be the favourite ahead of Switzerland, because of the name and the history etc,” said Senderos. “In terms of the game and form, at the moment Switzerland has had a fantastic tournament and has really gone through the rounds comfortably with a lot of technical control as well as game control.
“I believe Switzerland comes in with a bit of confidence. I still think this is a big competition and we’ve seen France not firing the way they should, England not yet. But they are building up into the competition, so I expect a very tough game. It goes well for Switzerland not to be the favourite.
“Everyone thinks Switzerland have a chance because it hasn’t been spectacular, but it’s still England, it’s still a team full of world-class players. They might click at one point and we all expect them to click now — the critical point of the competition. They are a very dangerous team and they have probably not done what we all expected to see until now, but they are full of quality players. For all of us, England is still one of the favourites.”
‘England should focus on their strengths’
As reported by Telegraph Sport, Southgate is considering matching up Switzerland’s back three on Saturday but Senderos believe England should be focussing on their own strengths.
“A big team like England should really play on their own strengths, but if they feel this would put their players in a better position, that’s the call of the management, the coach and even the players to have their say,” said Senderos.
“They might want to match a little bit what Switzerland do in terms of attacking and England have the players to play any sort of formation. I don’t think that’s really an important point because within the game the team moves around. But for Switzerland, I don’t think we will move too much because we’ve found a way that works.”
Senderos believes Southgate has “got the job done” up to this point and believes England are relying on “moments” from their big names, such as Jude Bellingham, who scored the last-gasp equaliser against Slovakia.