Two strikers make Reis happy
A strange encourager for Schalke 04
01/22/2023 09:56 am
FC Schalke clearly lost their first Bundesliga game after the World Cup break at Eintracht Frankfurt. And yet the bottom of the table draws courage for the difficult mission to stay in the league. Two players give coach Thomas Reis hope for a turnaround.
Football can sometimes be very strange: FC Schalke 04 messes up all test matches during the World Cup and winter break, top performers get injured and the transfer policy of the clammy club is not particularly well received by the fans. And then the bottom of the table loses at Eintracht Frankfurt when the Bundesliga restarts. That didn’t come as a surprise. The “Royal Blues” are too far behind, the SBU played too well before the Qatar interruption. And yet something unusual happens after the 0:3. Courage is growing at Schalke.
If you want to understand this, you must not look at the result. If you want to understand that, you have to deal with the course of this game, which was so different than the numbers make it appear. Because Schalke weren’t the worse team that Saturday afternoon, just the ones who couldn’t find a successful solution in front of the goal. “We had a lot of chances to score in the first half. But Frankfurt was freezing,” said Simon Terodde, Schalke’s striker. And he was right.
Frey forces Trapp to make a sensational parade
Soichiro Kozuki shoulders Schalke’s hopes.
(Photo: dpa)
The stupid thing is: You can reward your performance in any way you like, if there are no goals at the end, you don’t win a game. Not a groundbreaking insight, but one that the traditional club from Gelsenkirchen is repeatedly reminded of. With just 13 goals, Thomas Reis’ team has the most harmless attack in the league. Bitter: With Sebastian Polter, a giant injured his knee badly during the break and will miss the rest of the season. Pile and rice, that gave hope. The two formed a successful symbiosis at VfL Bochum last season.
And to counteract this acute lack of goal danger, the club signed a new man with Michael Frey shortly before the first kick-off. He comes from Royal Antwerp and is considered a guy who is very disgusting to defend. In Frankfurt he came into the game late and immediately had a scene that gives courage. In the 95th minute he forced national goalkeeper Kevin Trapp to make a sensational save, he had poked the ball on goal. A picture with symbolic power for this afternoon. The individual class made the difference. With Trapp in goal and with Jesper Lindstrom (22nd), he scored his goal after a remarkable solo run, with Rafael Borre (84th) and Aurelio Buta (90th + 1) in the ice-cold exploitation of chances.
Schalke’s courage surprised Mario Götze
At Schalke, on the other hand, the hope of a surprise was shattered on the post. Terodde and the Japanese Soichiro Kozuki, who had played for fifth division club 1. FC Düren last season before he switched to Schalke in the summer and was raised by Reis from the U23 a few weeks ago, met him. The right winger is perhaps the biggest winner of the break. “He currently still has this carefree attitude that I hope he will keep for a long time,” says Reis. “He’s shown he’s there, but we can’t blame him for everything.” Schalke collects encouragers, no matter how small or young they are. Frey should also become one of them. With his laborious attitude, he seems made for the club. “We need mentality and have to let the sparks jump over to the fans. He’s predestined for that, starts everything that’s not on the tree at three. Those are exactly the characters we need for Schalke 04 at the moment.” And it shouldn’t be over yet, on the transfer market. At least one fast outside player is still urgently needed. “The people involved are working on it day and night,” says Reis, sounding quite optimistic.
The coach himself is one of those guys who works hard, doesn’t complain loudly and certainly doesn’t give up: “I enjoyed the whole team, unfortunately individual things decided the game. There are still 19 games left, certain things are better We need to defend better and score more goals. We know it’s going to be a mammoth task but as long as it’s mathematically possible I’m absolutely confident we can stay in the league.” Performances like those against Frankfurt should help to wake up the sober environment again. “Schalke played very bravely, that was surprising,” praised Eintracht ace Mario Götze.
But the facts at the bottom of the Bundesliga are devastating. With the 36th game in a row without an away win, Schalke set an inglorious negative record in the Bundesliga. So it’s good that we can continue at home. With the new hope, points should finally be found that are urgently needed. The gap to the relegation rank is already six points. Not so good: With RB Leipzig, the team that hit FC Bayern on Friday evening (1-1) comes on Tuesday. “We have our fans behind us and a stadium that can radiate a lot of power. We have to bring the spark to the spectators on the pitch. The game starts again at 0-0.”