Schalke: 3 things to fix before the 2020-2021 season
3. More width in the attack
The Royal Blues’ strengths lie in the midfield, where Omar Mascarell, Suat Serdar, Amine Harit, and Weston McKennie are capable of bossing the game in a variety of ways. However, Die Knappen’s strengths in midfield can sometimes come at the expense of getting width in their play, and once Daniel Caligiuri went down with an injury, the Royal Blues had nothing going on the right flank.
Schalke task their fullbacks with supporting the attack frequently, but this can leave them vulnerable when transitioning to defense. And Bastian Oczipka has to be measured with how much he pushes up the pitch, since he doesn’t have the pace to get back quickly in defense.
The Royal Blues had major issues with finding ideal wide midfielders or forwards. Ahmed Kutucu and Rabbi Matondo were successful but barely played, and Kutucu is best as a striker. Benito Raman should not be forced wide, and when he is, Schalke lose their best goal-scoring threat in the 18-yard box.
dark. Next. Matija Nastasic is the ideal man in the middle
Schalke won’t be able to buy anyone this summer, so they need to come up with creative solutions to spread their attack, otherwise they will have the same issues. They will continue to struggle to find space and get frustrated when Amine Harit loses the ball. But Harit only loses the ball since Schalke task him with “mission impossible”, dribbling through five players to create some semblance of a chance for teammates who are out of their depth in tight spaces.