A Glittering Squad and No Direction - What Can Fix Turkiye's International Failures?

A Glittering Squad and No Direction - What Can Fix Turkiye's International Failures?

The World Cup has almost seen the group stage end and already there has been some shocks. Arguably the biggest shock of them all has been dark horse from Europe, Türkiye’s exit from the World Cup.

When looking at the side on paper they should’ve been one of the most competitive sides in that group and should’ve been challenging the USA for the top spot. However, they were a side that rolled over and ended bottom of their group, so, what went so wrong?

Let’s start with the most obvious area that went wrong for them. That is the attack with players like Koku, Guler, and Yildiz, Türkiye should be scoring for fun. Instead, what we saw was some domination that wasn’t getting any type of reward.

In their first 2 matches they saw 62 shots with only 13 on target. They generated 3.43 xG in those 2 matches. However, they couldn’t get anything past the keeper. It was shocking to see how bad their finishing was for a side that has so much attacking talent.

A blockbuster finish in Hollywood!

Kaan Ayhan wins it for Turkey with the last kick of the game against the US 😱 pic.twitter.com/UIszqRs41f

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 26, 2026

That would be their first area to improve, they would hope that by the next international tournament, the 2028 Euro’s their current star youngsters have grown and developed. At that point they should have a sharper edge and will be more clinical finishers.

Their next issue is their defence. While they make a lot of chances, they struggle to stop the other side from having chances as well. This has been what has punished them this summer. Their lack of finishing combined with the poor defence was what killed them.

If Türkiye tighten up their defence and focus on not conceding goals, then they will see more success. With the pure talent they have in their forward positions they should be more than able to win games.