It's rare for the Bundesliga to have four truly putrid teams. They usually got only one, tops two. Schalke's been lucky this time they got four teams that deserve the drop. But they better pray the promoted teams suck. I don't see Schalke's mismanagement issues getting solved any time soon.
combo - but losing goretzka, naldo was a beast last season, konoplyanka was good last season and has not featured much - some other players too - that they haven't really replaced -that's the biggest reason for the difference from last year in my opinion. cant just sell/get rid of players without replacing them and hope to maintain similar form....
We don't have the same quality of players that we had last year due to losing very good players (Goretzka, Meyer, Kehrer, Naldo) terrible purchases (Rudy and Mascarell. Serdar is ok) and injury (Stambouli and Bergstaller,). Harit has not developed as planned into the deadly AM his sophomore year.
Oczipka was terrible. I thought Sane had a very poor game also. I think Schalke are worse than the sum of their parts right now. They just don't have a way to work together to create offense, though with the defense they trotted out today, they at least succeeded in not having their offense be their biggest issue. If that makes them feel better? The missed Wes, for sure. I think today was maybe Wes's best day of the year in the sense of contrast. Without him you see they are much worse. Without him they get relegated.
It seems Hamburg and Cologne will be promoted next year. Either of those teams can ‘click’ and be a solid 1st BL team. This could lead Schalke to the bottom next season. Schalke needs to get their stuff together over the next 12 months. If Kiel, St Pauli, or Union Berlin get promoted, they’ll likely stay bottom of 1st BL. Hope Wes gets back to health soon. He is a special player. A key guy for Schalke right now.
The fact that Wes, who (let's be honest) is a decent Bundesliga player but nothing extraordinary in the grand scheme of things, is such an important part of Schalke's play, is reason enough to feel worried about the team.
Let's not go crazy, but also let us not ignore the rapid progress he has made. Even just since the beginning of this season he has made really great progress. He is now a player that could find a place on any team in the BL, in my opinion. He wouldn't start for Bayern. But I think he would displace Delaney at BVB, or at least split time. But yeah, Schalke are not great right now. Kutucu is coming on strong, though, and might help their offense.
Reports coming out that schalke will need to sell mckennie and another guy because of managerial incompetence. For those that do not know the bundesliga the top three financially backwards clubs are 1 Hertha a distant 2. hsv. 3.schalke.
Yep, Schalke may get forced to sell Embolo and McKennie at €15m each, and (according to the rumors) Lazio is after Embolo, Liverpool after McKennie. Also, Fährmann may be leaving too. https://www.ruhr24.de/s04/schalke-embolo-mckennie-wechsel-geruecht-161620/
Wm price probably deflated because of how many positions he played. I will be glad if he leaves i just hope he doesnt end up in a pulisic situation. Highest end being a move to a place like arsenal lowest end to everton. If he moves to liverpool he will be a bench warmer. Maybe even italy would be a good fit.
Interesting thought, but I'm starting to wonder. Having seen the trend toward positionless basketball and the rise to the "super utility" player in baseball (and creative use of pitching staffs), I'm wondering how much those trends might drift into soccer. There's already a lot of dedicated two-way players and, like basketball, the (good) players all factor into both defense and offense.
JFC guys, Wes is 20 years old and plays a number of positions, including mainly CM positions that people don't usually grow into until their mid-20s. He's not leaving except for stupid money - his transfermarkt value of 15m is short by a factor of at least 2 - and his "positional flexibility" is only increasing his value, not hurting it.
You won't find me defending Heidel who has made an absolute mess of roster management in the last 3 years but Leon was offered a reported $12MM per which would have made him easily the highest paid Schalke player in history and he turned it down to go to FC Hollywood. He also turned down offers to be sold to Mardid, Barca, and PSG.
If it is Liverpool I fear for his playing time unless he continues to improve thru the rest of this season. I would ask what his competition looks like but who the hell knows where he would play. Although given the competition at every position at Liverpool he may only have a chance at the #6 or #8 role anyways.
Nonsense. Schalke is the 3rd biggest club in Germany by revenue, behind Bayern and slightly behind Dortmund. We don't need to sell Weston who is currently our brightest youngster and has a mentality that is a difference maker on the squad. Now if say a PSG comes with a $42MM offer like they did for Kehrer then that is another story.
#Schalke: Guido #Burgstaller trainiert nach Sprunggelenks-Verletzung wieder mit der Mannschaft. Weston #Mckennie fehlt weiter. #S04 pic.twitter.com/FOX4HQL2oC— BILD FC Schalke 04 (@BILD_Schalke04) February 26, 2019 1100707523781447682 is not a valid tweet id Not training with the team yet
I'd love to see him with my Reds, but I'd hate if he's only on the bench all season. Maybe at an Everton/Crystal Palace-type club in the PL. Or heck; let's see our boy in Serie A.