FC Schalke vs Borussia Dortmund: 5 key players in Revierderby

1. Guido Burgstaller

The man! Guido Burgstaller is the only striker I know who could not score in 711 matches across eight league appearances and still keep his starting job. This means one of two things. Either Mark Uth and Ahmed Kutucu aren’t that good, or aren’t jiving with David Wagner, or Wagner sees so much value outside of Burgstaller’s ability to score goals that he becomes irreplaceable.

I’m going with the latter.

It’s frustrating to have a starting striker who struggles to score. Really frustrating. But you can’t boil down any position player into numbers and figures. Burgstaller has his faculties in the attack, he combines well, he holds up play well and yes, he will even score his goals. The fact that he can’t find his goal scoring boots yet just means that more will come in the future.

Hopefully the near future, but the future regardless.

This match can take on a whole new light if Burgstaller can get into the form that we need from him. Sure, he’s been contributing outside of goals, but at the end of the day, he’s there to score goals. You can’t hide from that. And he won’t.

That’s why I have all the faith in the world that Burgstaller has a huge part to play in this match. Whether that involves scoring goals or not, well, we will just have to wait and see.