Schalke 04: 3 players who must step up in Omar Mascarell’s absence

2. Salif Sane

Maybe it’s just that I’m buzzing around the return of Salif Sane, or maybe it’s because he is one of the most underrated centerbacks in the world, but having him back on that backline, weathering the attacking storm, makes me feel a hell of a lot more confident that we can withstand the absence of Omar Mascarell.

The thing is, when Mascarell was gone, this defense was pretty battered. It had done an excellent job standing up against the injuries but had begun to quiver under the pressure of being so isolated behind an equally battered midfield.

That was all before Salif Sane, however. With Salif Sane, I have complete faith that even if this midfield can’t fully mitigate the loss of Mascarell and cover for him, that Salif Sane has the defensive capabilities to step up and not allow what happened far too many times prior to the pause to happen again.

Sane is a top-class defender who, even with the emergence of Ozan Kabak, is still our best centerback and, as mentioned, one of the more underrated defensive stalwarts in the world. We don’t even have to ask him to step up. He just will.

Finally, No. 1.