FC Schalke: Matija Nastasic has to reintroduce regularity to this defense

FC Schalke have a defensive situation on their hands, and it’s fallen on Matija Nastasic to reintroduce some reliability to the back line.

Spoiler, all of these FC Schalke players are my favorite players, but I am particularly fond of Weston McKennie and, more recently, Ozan Kabak. I don’t want to see either of them make way for anyone, but they won’t have to with the return of Matija Nastasic.

Instead, they will be introduced to some regularity. Much needed regularity, I may add, seeing as how our central defense is currently at the feet of a central midfielder and a 19-year-old. Obviously I have the utmost faith in them, but surrendering three goals, no matter how well taken, against Fortuna Dusseldorf was a wake up call.

And again, it’s not even like either played particularly badly. But we can do better, and Nastasic will provide that.

For starters, he will let McKennie go back where he belongs in the center of the pitch, next to the rock, Oscar Mascarell. That will allow Suat Serdar to play a more creative role, as he can count on those two to be the backbone of the team.

That’s the kind of regularity dreams are made of.

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For Ozan Kabak, it means having a central defensive mate who knows the ins and outs of the role, who is an actual centerback, and who can be the perfect guiding light for a young 19-year-old thrown into the fray by necessity alone.

Kabak is fantastic already, and we should all be 100% confident in his abilities, but having two aggressive centerbacks in McKennie and Kabak led to some nerves, especially given the lack of experience between the two. They played admirably, but as I said, there is plenty of room for improvement, and Nastasic is that improvement.

The other thing is that this is a long-term fix. Because it has to be. Many estimations have Salif Sane and Benajim Stambouli both out for the rest of the year. Those are our two best and most experienced centerbacks. Nastasic is a close third. After that, we don’t have experience at centerback.

So yeah, the return of the Serbian is pretty damn important in introducing a bit of calm in the face of a defensive storm. It may have been more coincidental and the result of individual inspiration that we gave up three goals to Dusseldorf, but let’s not wait around and find out for sure.

Nastasic has what it takes to be the regularity this club needs to get back into Champions League football. the attack is figuring itself out, and Nastasic will allow the defense to do the same.