On Saturday (20:30) Schalke 04 want to turn things around against 1. FC Magdeburg. This is the status quo at S04.
Second division football club FC Schalke must slowly get rolling. After five match days, the team of coach Thomas Reis has only four points on its account.
Therefore, the pressure is already mounting before Saturday’s home match against 1. FC Magdeburg. And FCM comes to Gelsenkirchen in third place with a broad chest – coach Christian Titz’s team also has hardly any absentees.
It’s a different story for Reis, who will have to do without six players in Ron Schallenberg, Leo Greiml, Kenan Karaman, Tomas Kalas, Ralf Fährmann and Bryan Lasme. In addition, Simon Terodde was a question mark for a long time during the week.
Reis announced at the pre-match press conference: “Simon Terodde has only trained individually so far. We’ll see if it’s enough until Saturday. Unfortunately, Ralf Fährmann is also out. He will probably return to training next week.”
Sebastian Polter is available as a substitute for Terodde, he has cured his injury. Reis: “Sebastian is always up for it, he played 90 minutes in Ulm. I know what I have in him. If Simon can’t play, I have full confidence in him.”
And Reis also continues to believe in his team; he also saw a step forward in the 1-1 draw at Wehen. “We know what can make us stand out. We saw it in Wehen that defensively we have a compactness. We want to continue playing football like that. We need to be brave on the offensive, but first we have to have the ball. That’s where it’s about improving the switching goal as well.”
And with a view to the opponent, the coach knows exactly what to expect: “Magdeburg stands for spectacle, the coach puts the playful component in the foreground. Magdeburg plays very courageously, very risky, has a good switching game. They want to play quickly to the top, very rarely play long balls. But they have a relatively small team, so we hope for good standards, that can be an advantage for us.”
Here’s how they could play: Müller – Brunner, Baumgartl, Kaminski, Ouwejan – Tempelmann, Seguin – Kozuki, Ouedraogo, Mohr – Polter.
Absentees: Greiml (cruciate ligament tear), Fährmann (foot problems), Kalas (backlog in training), Karaman (fibre tear), Lasme (muscle injury), Schallenberg (red suspension)