FC Schalke: David Wagner is a guy who just gets it

FC Schalke are clearly in the right hands with David Wagner, now it’s just a matter of giving him the right tools to make serious inroads.

One of the many things the Bundesliga is doing so well is in regards to coaching. They don’t have a coaching carousel of the same mediocre names like you see over in the Premier League. they take chances, they invest, they are actually intelligent decisions. Such was the case with bringing David Wager to FC Schalke after he departed Huddersfield.

Since taking over at Schalke, Wagner has shown how capable and intelligent he is, but there is one strength in particular that makes him so preferable—he just gets it. And by that, I mean he doesn’t dally with decision making.

Wagner understands what he has at Schalke, he makes the best decisions, and he makes them quickly. Let’s look at some examples.

Benito Raman, for instance. Look how quickly he worked Raman into the flow. After the newbie failed to impress in the early going, he made a drastic turn around against Arminia, scoring a brace.

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All things considered, that wasn’t that big of a deal, but Wagner saw what he wanted, and in the next four matches, Raman started every one and scored two goals and added two assists. He was man of the match in at least two of those games, with an argument for more.

Wagner struck while the iron was hot, and it paid—and still is paying—massive dividends.

Look at how he handled the defensive situation, with Salif Sane and Benjamin Stambouli missing out with injury. He had already seen that Ozan Kabak had the talent, so he ran with the youngster, didn’t hesitate to get Matija Nastasic back into the mix and wa-la, problem solved.

After one match without Weston McKennine in the lineup, he realized what his strongest XI was and against Union Berlin, he deployed what was undoubtedly his best XI, even with his two star centerbacks missing.

It’s a long list of small things, not all of which I mentioned, that all add up to one big thing—David Wagner gets it. He understands the team and what he has here, he understands how to get the most out of his players, and Schalke are and will be on the right path as long as he is in charge.

Now it’s just a matter of turning those final corners towards prolonged relevance.