Jermaine Jones starts for Schalke against Hoffenheim in the DFB Cup quarterfinals. Jeremy Toljan starts for Hoffenheim but Fabian Johnson left out of the 18. http://liveticker.bundesliga.de/de/co33/#,ma1825867,n0 No TV broadcast in the US?
31: Uchida loses ball up field, JJ chases catches but misses the slide tackle. This is happening more frequently which tells me JJ has lost a step. The rest of the D is terrible Schalke L0-2 34: Mixup with KPB and JJ as I type another goal for Hoffenheim Schalke L0-3.
Jones has made two errors, but they weren't ridiculously bad but they both lead to goals. One was a case of lost footing, the second was a freak deflection. Still, on the second goal Schalke has 6 players defending 3 attackers and Hoffenheim make it look easy. If the score stays the same, I don't see Keller surviving the winter break. Outside Fuchs, none of these players have fallen off the cliff in terms of individual form. It's just team defending and tactics that are lacking (and it's almost every game).
Still, they are within striking distance of 4th place and can move on to the CL knockout round with a win vs. Basel. You have to also take into account the unbelievable number of injuries. However I agree that Schalke has been horrid on their bad days.
The fact that they're so inconsistent, that has to be on the coach. I feel like it almost always is. Yes, Schalke are close to 4th place in the league, but they also have a wage budget that's 50% larger than any German club not named Dortmund or Bayern. It's really unacceptable to be loosing 3-0 at home to an average first division team.
Yeah, Szalai has been underwhelming. On a positive note, if there is a team that can easily throw away a three goal lead this season, I see it being Hoffenheim.
57: Howedes misses agreat cross from Farfan of course Rudy stepping on his foot and tripping him did not help.