Schalke: 3 biggest breakthroughs of the 2019/20 season

1. Suat Serdar

Honestly, last year if you’d have asked me what I thought of Suat Serdar, I’d have shrugged. At 21-years-old, you really don’t want to still be at prospect stages. You want to start showing your quality for the long-haul. For Serdar, I hadn’t really seen that yet. He was… meh.

With twenty starts and six substitute appearances, he managed just two goals and an assist. defensively, he was good, averaging 2.9 defensive actions per match. Carrying the ball, he was alright. 1.4 dribbles completed, which paired well with relatively low possession loss.

But this year has been something else entirely. He’s our top goalscorer with seven goals—seven goals in less minutes than he had all of last year. He’s completing twice the dribbles as he did last year. He’s averaging 4.0 defensive plays per match.

Every single statistical category is up from last year is up, and there is a huge difference in what he can do for the team this year and what he could do last year. This year, he’s an engine. He powers from the midfield. It’s been an incredible transformation.

Needless to say, I no longer just shrug and say ‘meh’ when asked about Suat Serdar. Now we just have to keep him forever.