Schalke 04: 3 things Amine Harit absolutely must improve on
By Josh Sippie
Schalke 04 is betting the house on Amine Harit, but if this is going to work out, Amine Harit must improve on these three key things.
Everything Schalke does depends on Amine Harit. That’s the simplest way to look at things. Just look at the trend of the club and match it with the trend of Harit and you will see an eerily identical flow chart.
When Harit succeeds, Schalke succeeds. When Harit fails, Schalke fails. Last year, Schalke massively failed because Harit massively failed and this year, when Die Knappen was at their best, Harit was unsurprisingly at his best, amassing six goals and four assists in very little time.
Now that the Royal Blues are faltering again, you can look right there in the middle of the pitch and see Harit faltering as well. It’s not illogical, putting so much faith in someone so clearly talented, but in order for this relationship to work, both sides need to get better.
Schalke depends on Amine Harit, but he needs to grow
For the club, it’s a matter of stocking the attack with the right talent to complement Amine Harit, but for Harit, he has areas he needs to improve as well. Mainly, these three.
3. Staying on his feet
Amine Harit is the most fouled player in the Bundesliga, and that should come as no surprise to anyone. He plays the kind of game that merits getting fouled a lot and oftentimes, that can put the club in stellar positions to orchestrate set-pieces.
But it can also leave the team scrambling to snuff out opposing counterattacks when Harit goes to ground too easily, as well as losing out on potential opportunities.
There was one in particular in the Revierderby when Harit was weaving through traffic right at the top of the Dortmund box but, on first contact, he flailed, fell to the ground, was denied a foul and that was that.
Harit is always going to get fouled. It’s part of how he plays the game. But he has to be able to weather more contact otherwise he’s never going to feel comfortable around the box. He’s just going to keep flopping to the ground hoping to get bailed out by a foul call.
No. 2 is next.