Schalke 04: 5 reasons to stay positive after Revierderby defeat

1. Ahmed Kutucu is coming

For whatever reason, David Wagner has at no point this year been ready to hand Ahmed Kutucu a start with Schalke. It’s prompted the #FreeKutucu movement, owned by our friends at the SchalkeAmerica podcast and for just cause. What Schalke need more than anything right now is a striker who can score consistently and seeing as how we have tried everyone else—excessively in some cases—all we have left is Ahmed Kutucu.

Kutucu has three goals and an assist in just 349 Bundesliga minutes. Small sample size, but also, by far, our most reliable goal contributor on a per-minute basis. Not even close. And after seeing Bugstaller and Raman and Gregoritsch all fail to amount to anything, it really comes down to a matter of it couldn’t get any worse.

Wagner is a smart guy. What exactly the hang-up is between him and starting Kutucu is beyond me and beyond most, but it has to be coming to an end. Seeing the club so thoroughly clueless in the attack while Dortmund lacked no sharpness has to be the wakeup call that Wagner needed to get Kutucu in there and see what happens.

Things suck right now, but they’ll get better. There are too many good things happening at this club to keep them down for long.