Schalke: 3 possible starting XIs with Arkadiusz Milik

Schalke needs to revamp their striker situation, so with Arkadiusz Milik in mind, here are three variants of how they could line up with him.

Schalke‘s primary, and perhaps only, major need this coming transfer window is to identify a solution at striker. Maybe that doesn’t involve spending money, maybe the answer is Ahmed Kutucu, but now that the name Arkadiusz Milik has been thrown out there, I can think of nothing else.

So naturally, I wanted to explore all the possibilities of potential starting XI’s with the Polish striker wearing Royal Blue.

Schalke has tried to address the need at striker with additions like Benito Raman and Michael Gregoritsch, but neither has been the conclusive fix that we need. Raman certainly belongs on this club, but perhaps in more of a complementary role, and Gregoritsch still has some big things to prove before he can count on a future at this club.

Milik would the to perfect fix. And since he is the name most talked about, let’s explore three different possible starting XI’s with him as the starting striker. We start with No. 3.

3. 4-3-1-2

David Wagner has favored the 4-3-1-2 set-up this year, and part of the reason why is probably just that we haven’t had a consistent enough striker to just count on one, so he’s been trying different combinations of two.

It might be he wants to stick with that, allow Harit to feed the presence-speed combination of Milik and Benito Raman, and not worry too terribly much about width. Though, with Weston McKennie and Suat Serdar as central midfielders, there is always going to be some attacking push from that midfield, and depending on who we get at rightback, we can count on our fullbacks to deliver as well.

This is a safe bet, though it does exclude the likes of Ahmed Kutucu and Rabbi Matondo from regular game time. Although they could easily slip in next to Milik instead of Raman. It just depends on who’s in form and who fits best.

The point is, with Milik as a target man in this set-up, all of that attacking power around him, behind him, next to him, is going to be relying on him. Hence why Milik, or at least someone like Milik, is so important.

Another idea up next.