FC Schalke: The good, the bad, and the Suat Serdar

FC Schalke had a lot of interesting performances against Dusseldorf, perhaps none more so than Suat Serdar. These are all good signs though, right?

Up until the 78th minute of FC Schalke‘s eventual 3-3 draw with Fortuna Dusseldorf, there was no one I wanted off the pitch more than Suat Serdar. He was freshly back from injury and plying his trade in central midfield alongside the rock Oscar Mascarell, and it just felt like Serdar couldn’t figure out how to keep hold of the ball.

He only managed to complete 55% of his passes, one such misplayed pass ended up turning into one of Rouwen Hennings‘ three goals, and there was such a degree of panic in his play that it was a live wire every time he touched the ball.

Couple that with him losing possession five times between dispossessions and poor touches and it was shaping up to be a really bad match for someone who had been such a source of positivity all season long.

Then he scored in the 78th minute. Initially, I was just thrilled for the goal, doubly so that it came from him, because it meant I wouldn’t have to complain about him after the match. I don’t like complaining.

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But then I saw the deflection, and how, without it, that shot would have trickled up to Steffen for an easy save.

Now, I won’t complain about the goal, but it did remind me that Suat Serdar was still having a pretty poor match, all things considered.

Then I looked at the stats after the match. Suat Serdar completed six dribbles, three times as many as the next highest FC Schalke player. He also lead the team in completed tackles. But numbers can be deceptive right? So I watched the match again and, sure enough, if you take all the stuff that happened in between the glaring mistakes, you will see a man in form. He was tremendous at times. It was just overshadowed by those aforementioned glaring mistakes.

That doesn’t excuse them, but it is easy enough to explain. He was coming back from injury. He’s rusty. Benito Raman was rusty in his previous match, then against Dusseldorf he was the man of the match.

Meaning that Suat Serdar, if he follows the same trajectory, is destined for great things when FC Schalke return to action after international break. And frankly, I couldn’t be more excited about it.