FC Schalke: How Salif Sane did the impossible and replaced Naldo

Naldo was the Colossus of FC Schalke, so seeing him leave was… troubling. But Salif Sane hasn’t only replaced Naldo, he’s taken it a step further.

I will never forget it. A mass of FC Schalke and Borussia Dortmund bodies, all crowding the Dortmund goal area. All of a sudden, as if crowd surfing, Naldo rose above everyone by more than mere inches and nodded home to level the game at four a piece.

Naldo was already a hero at Schalke. That shiny noggin of his like a beacon of hope. He was ageless, he was massive, he was everything you could want a defender to be. So when he left in 2018, I was worried. How do you replace a guy like that?

FC Schalke’s answer was Salif Sane. A like-for-like replacement (as much as you can be when Naldo is involved) meant to be the new lighthouse of the backline. It was hard to hide how direct a replacement he was, seeing as how Schalke sold Naldo for €2m and bought Sane for €2m.

When you’re coming in to replace a defender who’s 6’6″ and 196 pounds, who also boasts a vertical probably ranking in somewhere between a tree frog and a jumping spider, the odds are stacked against you. And mind you, Salif Sane isn’t small. 6’5″ and 176 pounds is no shrimp. But it’s also no Naldo.

Yet when you look at how he uses that size, you can see why we haven’t reeled at all since making that switch. Just look at the numbers.

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In Naldo’s 2017/18 campaign, the big one, the one that made him an icon, he won 4.9 aerial duels per match (77%). On the ground, he won 2.1 duels per match (62%). Overall, he won 72% of his duels across the board. He also managed 1.6 tackles and 1.5 interceptions per match, though I’m less keen to judge a defender based on those stats as his duels completed.

He also scored seven goals.

In steps Salif Sane. Smaller, less experienced, but called on to replace the Brazilian tower. Not only has Sane done that, he has taken it a step further.

In his first year at the club, despite FC Schalke literally crumbling down all around him, Sane managed to one-up Naldo in nearly every statistical category. In aerial duels, he won 4 aerial duels per match (76%), 3.3 on the ground (67%) and 71% of his overall duels. He also one-upped in interceptions (2.3) and tackles (1.8).

Compared to Naldo’s first season at the club, these were far and away the better numbers, the bigger impact, and an improved player.

Then there’s this year.

The pace that Sane is setting this year statistically is going to outdo Naldo in literally every single way because he’s outdoing his debut season in literally every single way. Sane is winning more aerial duels, more ground duels, increasing his percentages almost across the board, and with two early goals, he is well on pace to top Naldo’s seven from his big year.

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Sure, you can’t judge defenders based on stats alone, but tell me who of you out there have felt Naldo’s absence? Not me. And I didn’t think that was possible. But Salif Sane didn’t just make it possible, he made it real.

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