FC Schalke: Don’t ever give up on Alessandro Schopf

Alessandro Schopf has been in and out of the FC Schalke first team picture for years, but by now you should have learned to never count him out.

I don’t often put a lot of credence in numbers alone, but I do what to start with the numbers that Alessandro Schopf put up. As you’ll come to learn about me, I will always believe in Schopf and always advocate for his prolonged exposure in the FC Schalke starting XI. He’s the heir apparent to Daniel Caligiuri, even if he’s struggling to really settle into that role.

Schopf got his first start of the season against Hoffenheim and it was… mixed. Let’s talk about the numbers so we can get into the rest.

Schopf, on his own, completed eight tackles. Needless to say that was far and away the best on the team. He was a tireless hawk for the ball, refusing to let Hoffenheim get a moment’s comfort on the ball.

But he also lost the ball eight times. He took four shots, the most of anyone on the team by double the next highest… but none were on target.

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It was a match of give and take for Schopf, as it often goes with him. He shows so, so much ability. Dude won the ball back eight times! All on his own. And on a day when the club struggled to mount much offensive threat, he popped off four shots. The drawbacks come not as much from his own failings, but from the failings of the team as a whole.

Sometimes you have to take shots when the penetration just isn’t there. Sometimes you have to be a bit reckless, even if it means losing the ball an exorbitant amount. All in the name of trying to make something happen.

In that sense, Schopf had a tremendous game. He tried things. He instigated. When everything else failed, Schopf tried something new. And my favorite? He never stops. Literally, never stops. Even as the life was being sucked out of the game, Schopf kept going.

What Schopf needs is fine-tuning. What if two of those shots would have been on target? What if a quarter of his attempted maneuvers turned out better? The game changes. You need instigators like Schopf on the team for matches like that, and something tells me there will be more matches like that in the future, so long as Die Knappen lack that finishing touch.

So use him. Use Schopf. Get him in there and let him settle. He needs this just as much as the club does. And so do the fans.