Schalke has tried to make Guido Burgstaller the answer, but given that he still has the makings of the man that we need, is it worth another shot?
David Wagner has made so many attempts to find the answer to Schalke‘s goal-scoring problems. He’s had a handful of strikers to play around with and gradually he’s starting to weed out the clear nonstarters—Mark Uth—and work in some of the up and comers—Benito Raman.
Then there are guys like Michael Gregoritsch, whose initial foray of excellence looks to have been a fluke. Rabbi Matondo and Ahmed Kutucu are always waiting on standby, but all these guys have one thing in common—they play the same way.
Guido Burgstaller doesn’t. When you watch him play, you see that he plays the way Schalke need a striker to play. He’s got the makings of the man we need, but he hasn’t been able to put it together and be the man.
After that 11 goals and four assist first full year at the club, Burgstaller has been nothing short of awful in the goal-scoring department. Just five goals in 2600 minutes across two seasons.
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You don’t win Bundesliga titles with that kind of output.
But it’s impossible to deny that Burgstaller’s hold-up play, and his presence and strength in the box, would be massive lifts to a speed-based attack, if only it wasn’t the only thing he had to offer the club.
I’ve spent way too much time gushing about Arakdiusz Milik lately and I keep drawing the same comparison—Milik is what we want Burgstaller to be. And with two years left on his deal, it’s at that same decision point that it is with so many other Schalke players.
Many fans would be quick to wish Burgstaller sold. And it may very well go that way. Uth was booted, Gregoritsch is likely to follow when his loan is up. It’s going to be a young man’s game. But part of me still sees what Burgstaller brings and finds this little burst of optimism. That maybe he has something left to give.
Maybe that just makes me crazy, I don’t know. But it’s hard to see a player who has all the makings of an answer, and then see him not be able to cobble it together enough to be the answer. Maybe he can just be part of the answer?