2-2 after 2-0: Schalke 04 squandered their lead against Dresden. There was criticism of two substitutions made by coach Miron Muslic. If the score had remained 2-0, Saturday afternoon would have provided a lot of great stories for FC Schalke 04: for example, Edin Dzeko’s brace (52nd/70th) and good debuts from Moussa Ndiaye and Adil Aouchiche. But after what seemed like an eternity of stoppage time, the score between Schalke and Dynamo Dresden was 2-2 (0-0), and Schalke’s mini-crisis continued. S04 has been waiting for a win for five games.

Before Schalke let the game slip away, coach Miron Muslic made two substitutions. Dzeko, who scored twice, had to come off immediately after his second goal (he was replaced by Moussa Sylla), followed by Ndiaye in the 76th minute, who was replaced by Felipe Sanchez. Schalke lost their stability, with Dresden equalizing through an own goal by Hasan Kurucay (78th minute) and a header by Thomas Keller (87th minute).

Schalke fans discussed the two substitutions. The coach was criticized in the comments section of the YouTube video of the press conference. Excerpts: “That was not good coaching,” “Unbelievable how you can coach so badly,” “Those were just shitty substitutions,” “The coach ruined the game,” “I miss the coach’s self-criticism.” Why did Muslic make the substitution? Dzeko had made a good physical impression. But Muslic said: “Of course, Edin can’t last 90 minutes. It’s been an eternity since he last played the full game. We prepared him clearly, letting him play 25 minutes first, then 45 minutes. You can substitute Edin Dzeko when the score is 2-0 with 20 minutes to go if you know for sure that he’s not ready yet.” Moussa Sylla had the chance to score the third goal when the score was 2-1, but failed to convert from a free position.

Muslic used a similar argument for Ndiaye: “Ndiaye has only been with us for two days and has completed two training sessions with us. It’s been an eternity since the boy last played a full game.” But that’s not entirely true. On December 26, 2025, around six weeks ago, Ndiaye played the entire game for RSC Anderlecht against Charleroi (1-2) in the Belgian first division. He played 84 minutes on January 18, 2026, in the 2-4 defeat in Ghent.

But Ndiaye’s substitution was not only for physical reasons, according to Muslic: “We did exactly the same with Ndiaye as we have often done with Vitalie Becker in the last six or seven months in the last ten or 15 minutes. Dresden brought on some big players.” Ndiaye was replaced by Hasan Kurucay, who is strong in the air, and later Felipe Sanchez (81′) came on for Ron Schallenberg. Even with five trained center backs on the pitch (Kurucay, Sanchez, Mertcan Ayhan, Nikola Katic, Timo Becker), they were unable to prevent the equalizer after a corner.

Muslic’s assessment of the game was mixed, regardless of the substitutions: “Two weeks ago, after the late goals to make it 2-2 against Kaiserslautern, it felt like a win, but today it’s the opposite. The first half was tough, the second half was great. We did exactly what we set out to do: high intensity, high ball wins, very dangerous on the counterattack. We rewarded ourselves with two beautiful goals. Normally, that should be enough.“ The equalizer came ”out of nowhere.”