After relegation, Schalke 04 is pushing ahead with its planning. The future of the offensive duo is open. The club would like to keep one player.

FC Schalke 04 has been relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga for two days now, so all thoughts are on the coming weeks and the new challenge: the summer break is only short, and in a fortnight’ time coach Thomas Reis will ask the team to prepare again. Little time to come to terms with the relegation from the Bundesliga and, above all, to put together a new team.

Decisions are expected in the next few days on who comes, who stays, who goes. “We know how tough the Second Division is. But we can’t go into the Second Division as Schalke 04 without ambitions,” said sports director Peter Knäbel on Monday.

Marius Bülter is a big hope among the fans: the 30-year-old was Schalke’s top scorer in the past season with eleven goals. The offensive player has naturally aroused the interest of the remaining Bundesliga clubs. However, according to information from this editorial team, there is currently no offer for Bülter. The same applies to Rodrigo Zalazar. During the course of the season, the 23-year-old Uruguayan was most likely to be a creative midfield player.

After the certain departure of Simon Terodde, Schalke need a goal-scoring attacker who can shoot the team back into the Bundesliga. At the moment, the most likely candidate is Sebastian Polter, who is a permanent fixture.

Who Schalke also expect to score goals from in the new season: Marvin Pieringer. As a loan player for SC Paderborn, the 23-year-old scored ten goals and made eight assists in 23 appearances during the past second division season. In addition, Pieringer scored four times in three cup matches Marvin Pieringer is just as much a fixture as Florian Flick, most recently loaned out to 1. FC Nürnberg.

The upheaval at Schalke 04 will not be small, eleven players are no longer part of the squad in the new season according to information from this editorial team. Players like Moritz Jenz, Tom Krauß or Maya Yoshida will leave the club. However, the Königsblauen want to make a special effort to retain one player they have loaned out themselves: Sepp van den Berg. The Dutch centre-back is supposed to keep the Schalke defence together in the 2nd division.