Schalke 04: 5 crucial keys to downing Borussia Dortmund

David Wagner, Schalke 04 (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)
David Wagner, Schalke 04 (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)
4 of 5
FC Schalke, Benito Raman
Schalke 04, Michael Gregoritsch, Benito Raman (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Bongarts/Getty Images)

2. Take your chances

The key to every match right? But no seriously. More so here than anywhere else because this is such a big question mark as far as the Royal Blues are concerned. Creating chances is a big-time problem lately, thanks in part to the fluctuating injury situation, but when those chances come, they absolutely have to take them.

That doesn’t mean just getting shots on target. That means being available to receive threatening balls that find their way into dangerous areas. With Amine Harit surely starting and the fullback duo of Bastian Oczipka and Jonjoe Kenny owning the flanks, there will be balls flying into dangerous areas and it will be up to whoever David Wagner deploys at striker to turn those workable balls into threats.

This is a big question of personnel as well, since Wagner has so many choices and so little reliability within those choices. Benito Raman will probably find his way back out onto the pitch, but whoever starts next to him will determine how this attack takes shape.

However it takes shape, there will be chances and we have to take them. Because you can almost guarantee that Dortmund will.