The long-serving Bundesliga goalkeeper knows S04 inside out. He knows how to live Schalke – and currently misses the quality.

Former Schalke Bundesliga goalkeeper Oliver Reck (57) spoke on the WDR 2 podcast “einfach Fußball” about the current situation at the Royal Blues. Reck was at Schalke’s home defeat against SV Elversberg (1:2) with his wife and came to the conclusion: “The players are not ready for Schalke. They don’t even know what they’re getting themselves into here. There are 60,000 in this stadium – you have to be on fire for that.”

Reck goes into detail: “You have to be player X to play there. Not everyone can do that. It can’t be player X or Y, it has to be the player who fits in, who lives Schalke, who has Schalke in his blood, who soaks up Schalke, who can live with the situation. And not everyone at Schalke can do that at the moment.”

Reck played a total of 112 competitive matches for Schalke between 1998 and 2003, worked as a goalkeeper and interim coach at the Pott-Klub after his active career and is still a member of the S04 traditional team today.

Although the former Bremen man is no longer quite as “close” as he used to be, he still gets to hear a lot when he meets up with his old colleagues. “You meet up, you talk about the situation, what’s going on, what’s going on in the dressing room, what the new coach is doing, who hired the man, how did you get there?”

Schalke has no time

The fact that Belgian S04 coach Karel Geraerts (41) communicates in English at press conferences and in training sessions is not “the problem” for Olli Reck. For him, it’s much more important: “You have to understand Schalke and assess how Schalke works. And if he has really done that in these talks, then perhaps he is the right man. But he also needs time.” Reck adds: “We don’t have any time, we’re in the relegation places.”

The former keeper, who celebrated two DFB Cup victories with Schalke, sees the Royal Blues facing crucial games after the international break. “And I’m curious to see if everyone can deal with this situation,” said Reck.