Schalke has had a strong start to the season, with new coach Miron Muslic playing a major role, as Timo Becker explains.

Many coaches have tried to get FC Schalke under control in recent years. All with limited success.

Until now, at least, although it is of course too early to draw any definitive conclusions. The fact is, however, that coach Miron Muslic has clearly made the right adjustments so far.

His focus has been primarily on the defense. The coach is particularly pleased about this. Although not everyone was at full strength, every player threw themselves into the race for the Royal Blues, as he emphasized after the 1-0 win at Dynamo Dresden: “The second Bundesliga is not a beauty contest, especially when you come to Dresden, you know what to expect. In truth, we had players on the pitch who were far from 100 percent, but they were determined to win. That’s also the new spirit at Schalke, even if we had the happier ending for us.”

The reward: second place and finally a start to the season that is not accompanied by negative discussions. Muslic knows that he is still in the early stages of his work.

One issue after another is being tackled. “The first task was to stabilize the team. We know where we’ve come from. That was the most important, most difficult battle; we’ll take care of the rest later. Now it’s time to focus on the next priorities. Defensive stability is important; we’re hard to beat.”

The coach clearly finds the right words to convey his strategy to the team, as defender Timo Becker explains: “The coach tailors everything precisely to the squad and its quality. In the last two years, we were the league’s whipping boys. The coach has changed that.”

Now Muslic has two weeks during the international break to further instill his ideas in the team. There is also a test coming up. On Friday (September 5, 3 p.m.), they will face Borussia Mönchengladbach.