Schalke: Amine Harit goal drought has predictable ending

Amine Hari fell into a drought prior to the Bundesliga season getting suspended, but the Schalke man’s drought will only end one way.

For as much praise gets heaped on the Schalke defense, the attack doesn’t get nearly as much. Mostly because, to put it simply, they don’t deserve it. They’ve struggled to keep the goals coming, and that’s even with Amine Harit staying healthy all year.

Amine Harit is the talisman of this attack, he has been for a couple years, building most of the hype on a pedestal of potential. This was supposed to be his bounceback year.

For a while there, it was looking like it was going to be just that. After an inaugural three goal and three assist year, he faltered last year amidst personal roadblocks and in an abbreviated, 1000-minute season, mustered just a goal and an assist.

Harit has six goals and four assists on the year. He was the centerpiece that was pushing Schalke up the table. No matter who did or didn’t show up in this attack, Harit almost always did.

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However, since the week before Christmas, Harit has not scored or assisted in nine Bundesliga matches. Unsurprisingly, the club has only managed five altogether. His last assist came on December 15th and his last goal three weeks prior on November 23rd.

That’s one hell of a drought, even without the help of the lengthy pause that we’re currently in. In that time, we’ve spent plenty of time talking about how the burden on Harit needs to be lessened. Benito Raman helped immensely, and Suat Serdar does as well, but with six goals and four assists on the year, Harit is still out most reliable producer and someone that needs to be kickstarted if this attack is going to kick it into gear.

That’s where the good ones really kicks in—Harit is going to snap back into gear. He’s got more tools to work with now than he did when he scored four goals and added two assists in just three matches back in September. Not he’s got Raman, he’s got an in-form Serdar. He’s got Ahmed Kutucu and Rabbi Matondo just begging for involvement.

This drought that Harit is in only ends one way—more goals. The Harit we’ve seen this year is the same Harit that we’ve been building towards over the past couple of years. He’ll give us at least 15 goal contributions on the year. Mark my words.