Fans despair of Grammozis: The coach question divides Schalke 04

Fans despair of Grammozis
The coach question divides Schalke 04

By Tobias Nordmann

From the point of view of FC Schalke 04, not too much has happened yet. The situation is actually still relaxed. With a newly assembled team, the relegated team is among the top teams in the second division. And yet there is a crisis. Once again.

Perhaps the view of Dortmund comforts the Schalke soul. At least a bit. Because things are not going well at the unloved Borussia these days. The terrifying performance at the weekend in the top division of the Bundesliga (a stab in Schalke’s heart) at RB Leipzig caused a touch of crisis. The extremely lousy mood after games that weren’t very enjoyable resulted in a small explosion in a wild system debate. Marco Reus thinks the triple chain is stupid. His coach, whose name is Marco Rose (you can get confused easily), sees it very differently. He thinks it’s rather stupid that his extended arm rumbles so aggressively on the field.

Luxury problems! At least in the current Schalke reality. She deals with the big picture again. And currently has no capacity for detailed things like system questions. At the Royal Blues, coach Dimitrios Grammozis is once again under criticism. A groundhog story. When was that different? Last season, which ended after a one and a half year horror trip with the most deserved relegation, this coach was first murmured and then discussed loudly at the end. Is he really the right man for the spectacular rebuilding? Well, the club saw it – possibly due to financial hardship – after all: Grammozis should get a fair chance. He did not have this with the wild pile of horrors that had previously worn out four coaches (Huub Stevens was only intended as an interim anyway).

It was a decision that did not necessarily have a majority in the environment. Also because the name of Steffen Baumgart as a possible successor stormed through the orphaned mine shafts of the city. But the raging man in the cap has landed in Cologne and makes the Effzeh athletically happy there. Despite the debate about the whistles at the home game, most recently against Union Berlin. Now it’s not as if they haven’t felt the feeling of bliss at Schalke this season. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago. Less than two weeks. But what caused a series of three defeats after four previous successes without conceding a goal, revealed the enormous internal contradiction of this club. Because the bankruptcies have eaten all happiness. Anger and frustration rose quickly from the tunnels. And the trainer is counted.

Schalke is a first division team. Period. End. The end.

In this, the first season after relegation, you don’t have to go straight back to the upper room of German football. They like to say that at the club. It’s a pleasant reassurance. One that is supposed to boil down the immense pressure. But this announcement does not reach the soul of the club. Not even your own claim. It is and remains that way: Schalke are a first division team. Period. End. The end. But this claim is not supported where the truth is played out. So far, the team has lived mainly from the immense quality of the individuals this season. Not from a basic idea. That is also what the coach is blamed for. Just like the lack of further development of the team and its analyzes, which are often too positive and clearly different from the collective perception. But what should a coach do?

The deficits in the game are particularly blatant when striker Simon Terodde no longer hits. This fate overtakes every attacker at some point. Even Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland have missed more than one game in a row. That sounds weird. But that’s how it is. As with Terodde. He had made the 2nd division his empire in the past few years and no matter where he was, he had scored one goal after the other. There were so many that Dieter Schatzschneider caught the all-time record. But as soon as this mark was reached, there was nothing more than dark sky. The fireworks, it was and is extinguished.

Assuming that everything would be fine when Terodde scores again, that would dwarf the problems of FC Schalke 04. The team carries around a pile of worries. Again and again the players afford fatal dropouts, again and again there are large gaps in the development game as well as in the protection and in the offensive there is no plan B next to plan T (erodde). The Royal Blues are currently as far removed from dominance or from inspiring football as BVB is from a successful hunt for FC Bayern. However, that is also part of the truth, nothing has happened yet from the Schalke’s point of view. As fifth in the table, all chances of returning to the first division are very well intact. And so Grammozis emphasizes that you could have lived with this situation after 13 match days (22 points) before the season. But, is this really the truth?

A very good summer at Schalke

It was clear that the team would change radically after relegation. Ought to. The squad was too expensive, it delivered too little. Hardly anything went together. Probably nothing even went together. But when it was foreseeable that sports director Rouwen Schröder would master an amazing transfer summer, which even the Ultras recently praised for having put together a very capable squad, the belief suddenly grew that it could go well, that it might even go very well. The first team may be the best in the league. In view of the ailing financial situation, it is not surprising that it is getting a little thinner behind it.

It is all the more bitter that Schalke said goodbye to the DFB Cup in the second round. A small debacle that the coach has to tackle. With Terodde he spared his top striker against third division 1860 Munich. Thomas Ouwejan, who played on the left side and became a great discovery over the course of the season, only sat on the bench. One can justify these decisions with load control. However, it is also like that: Schalke do not play in Europe, nor are there a lot of players who have to travel to their national teams on a regular basis. Above all, there are hardly any top performers. Only Malick Thiaw, Ko Itakura and Mehmet Aydin from the regular cast are out and about during the current period of absence.

This is actually a good situation for Grammozis. He now has a few days to spare. The bosses give him that too. You vigorously stalled a coaching discussion after the series of bankruptcies. Out of honest conviction? Or because finances make it difficult to find a good replacement solution (in addition to a severance payment)? Despite the backing, names like ex-coach Domenico Tedesco or Daniel Farke, who has just been fired from Norwich City, are already circulating in fan forums and the media. And they will be called louder with every further setback. And the next few weeks will be crisp. In series, competitors are waiting for promotion: Werder Bremen, leaders FC St. Pauli, 1. FC Nürnberg and Hamburger SV. It’s about the big and the whole. To the climb. To Grammozis. And of course Schalke, the largest club in the middle of the pot.

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