Schalke vs RB Leipzig predicted XI: Everyone loves an upset

Schalke have not impressed lately, but with RB Leipzig up next, it’s time to do what they did last time—win. Here is their predicted starting XI.

Last time Schalke were being criminally underrated, they went into RB Leipzig and won by a conclusive 3-1 scoreline, with that one goal surrendered coming from a baffling individual mistake. So it should have been 3-0. But I digress.

Coming off a series of disappoint draws that now sees Schalke fairly comfortably wedged in sixth place, Die Knappen could really use a resurgent showing that lifts them back into Champions League contention. They really haven’t recovered from that Bayern Munich debacle. But this is an excellent chance to do so.

It comes at a good time too, as Schalke are returning to near full health. Or at least, near full health enough. Not a moment too soon, because another goalless draw would be slightly mind-numbing. In case you didn’t notice, it left us here at Release the Knappen in a bit of a writing rut. There’s only so much you can say about goalless draws.

Hosting RB Leipzig isn’t likely to spawn a goalless draw, that’s for sure. We will have to keep up with the visitors attack, and, again, that becomes a lot easier with the return to health of some crucial players.

The question, as always, is how David Wagner wants to try to inspire some hope in this often flat attack. I have some ideas, which I will try to will into existence by predicting them here.

As for the injury questions. Obviously we are still without Salif Sane, Benjamin Stambouli and Daniel Caligiuri.

Besides that, Suat Serdar is the only lingering question mark, but a lot of the hopes I’m deriving from this match come from him being healthy and ready to go, as you will see as my predictions pan out.

As usual, I’m thinking a 4-1-3-2. Let’s get into the personnel.

Keeper

With Markus Schubert still out due to injury, it’s still Alexander Nubel‘s job. As long as he keeps doing a good job, I’ll try not to complain too much about how much I can’t stand the guy. Did I say that out loud? Oops.

On to the defense.