Nick Taitague at Schalke

Major talent pre-injury. Could be the perfect type of player for Schalke in the rebuild. Top-5 league pro- level ability. Though, i am not sure if he is Uber-Level talent like Pulisic or Sancho. But we can always use Solid- Europa level players.

 

No Nick Taitague on Schalke's new U23 roster.

https://schalke04.de/knappenschmiede/mannschaften/uebergangsbereich/u23/kader-u23/

 

does that mean first team?!

 

Taitague has been promoted from the U23 injury list to the first team injury list. Excellent news!

 

Good question! I think he impressed some people during the winter training camp in Spain. But then he hurt himself again.

 

Just read it on Twitter. You can order the new Schalke 20/21 jersey with his name on it. That means he's officially a first team player now.

 

Unfortunately, his latest injury cost him his face. But still, excited to see what he can do.

 

There's a training drill at the end where Nick features quite a bit on the ball. He looks just as quick and explosive as he ever did.

 

do you know the time stamp?

 

i breifly scanned through and there is an large scrimmage at about 40 where he shows up with a couple nice moves.

 

Thank you. Yea he looked quick and sharp.

 

Min ~43. Top of screen orange bib wide player.

 

and scored at 46:48

other observations from the 8v8 with 2 neutral attackers;
WM practicing his line breaking
Rudy can't seem to be bothered

 

Would be real weird if this kid just jumps up and gets any kind of BL minutes this next season. Just completely written off with all the injuries, and now he's apparently on the first team? Seems too good to be true! Hope he has a nice run of good health.

 

its kind of the perfect situation for him. schalkes finances being in disarray means they are probably more willing to try and get lucky with a creative attacking lottery ticket. he has proven to be a very high end prospect when healthy

 

Agree it's not a bad situation, but it could also be more of a "we stink, we poor, let's throw out whatever players we have and get relegated"...even in that worst case scenario, being on the 1st team and hopefully getting some minutes is still a good thing!

 

Or it could be, we always really liked you, and thought extremely highly of you and now hopefully you're healthy.

 

Umm, isn't that the best case scenario I was responding to? You just said the exact same thing.

 

It could be.

 

I’m gonna get way ahead of myself and say that in that little scrimmage he hit every little pass at the right pace. Surprised to see that little perfect tempo on every ball. I had heard he was quick...

 

I admittedly haven't seen Nick Taitague play much. Can anyone who has watched him play tell us more about his playing style and attributes? What type of player is he? What are his strengths? Where is he typically deployed on the field?

 

Unfortunately, no one has ever seen him play.

 

I remember him as a wide attacking mid who could play on either side, also more than capable in advanced central roles.

Extremely technical and extremely quick. At U19 level you could tell he was a legit Bundesliga prospect based off those two attributes alone.

Against amateurs Taitague could go by defenders at will and he always seemed to make valuable decisions with the ball. Scored, assisted, constantly productive. Absolute top talent before what seems like years of conveyor belt persisting injuries.

I've said it before in this thread but I always thought he showed even better dribbling ability and close control than Pulisic did at similar level, but it was always difficult to directly compare because of how little Pulisic played against amateurs once he got to Germany.

Pulisic pretty much got fast tracked straight to the Bundesliga the second he matured physically.

 

I wouldn't say say he was a better dribbler than pulsic at a similar age but he was always quick and technical. Thats why he trial at Manchester United at 14. He just needs to get better end product and stay healthy. To be a beast honestly

 

Right. His team is too broke to sign any players so they must use the academy.