Schalke: Rabbi Matondo problem has Serdar-sized solution

Schalke bailed Rabbi Matondo out from Manchester City, but now the task has become getting the most out of him. The solution… could be easy.

FC Schalke have a serious attacking problem, in case you didn’t notice. Between five different strikers this year, they have only found one guy that could realistically be relied on—Benito Raman. Other than that, it’s only Amine Harit that we can count on.

And needless to say, you don’t get far with one reliable striker and one reliable creator. It’s too much pressure on too few shoulders. But that’s why we invested in Rabbi Matondo not all that long ago. He was meant to be a solution to the very problem that we’re currently in the midst of and he… isn’t quite a solution.

My cohort Kevin made a point not to sleep on Matondo for next season, and there’s validity in that, but the problem with Matondo is that he has yet to show concrete evidence that he could be a solution at all.

Part of the problem may be positioning. David Wagner has been using him primarily as a forward in a two-striker set while Matondo is more used to being a winger.

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Even if that is part of the problem, though, the bigger problem here might just be opportunity and I don’t need to point you any further than to Suat Serdar. I don’t think many of us expected Suat Serdar to be a midfield solution. He played about half of last season, looked decent, but not great, and wasn’t exactly a head-turner.

This year, playing the majority of the season, he has been the belle of the Bundesliga ball. He’s been an absolute game-changer out of seemingly nothing.

Matondo is coming out of a similar base. He doesn’t have much on his resume to indicate that he’s ready to be a solution, but neither did Serdar, and look what happened there. It’s dicey to count on Matondo to be a solution, but given how young he is and how much raw talent he has, it stands to reason that his big breakout isn’t far away and, by the end of the season (whenever that happens), we may see more evidence to support him being a solution.

Even if we don’t, though, it’s not the craziest idea to bet on him being someone to help the club move forward. Of course, he’ll have Ahmed Kutucu to compete with.