Schalke predicted XI vs Dortmund in Revierderby return

David Wagner has a lot of Schalke 04 personnel choices to make in the lead-up to the Revierderby. Here’s a look at our predicted starting XI.

The Bundesliga could not have picked a more epic way to reopen, with the Revierderby on deck to kick things off. Schalke 04 are coming off one hell of a rut leading into the pause, while Borussia Dortmund was flying high as can be. But a lot can and did change during a lay-off extending over a month.

For starters, the health of the team changes, the fitness of the team changes, a lot changes. For Schalke, the health changed in a good way. Their defense is back in action, the attack is fully fit, but the midfield is missing a key piece in Omar Mascarell.

For Dortmund, it’s a bit different, as their list of potentially missing players is expanding. It started with just Emre Can and Axel Witsel, which is already a big deal, but it has gotten potentially worse since then.

Schalke has a near-full complement of health for the Revierderby. Here’s how they could line up

Which makes it key for David Wagner to make some smart decisions with the starting XI. However, the hard time part of predicting this is not knowing who is fully fit. All we have to base our decisions on is who looked the most fit in the training video and photos, which isn’t the best judge of fitness.

But we’re going to do our best, while staying blindingly optimistic that all of our wildest dreams are about to come true. And so, without further ado, let’s get into the Predicted XI for the Revierderby, quiet as it may be.

We start in goal.

Keeper

The easiest decision to make, it has to be Markus Schubert back there because David Wagner said it would be. Ever since Alexander Nubel announced he would be taking his talents to the Bayern Munich bench, it’s been Schubert’s job no matter the situation.

Come next year when Ralf Fahrmann returns, that may be a different story but, for now, the job has to go to Schubert. And I think he’s going to like who’s in front of him on defense.