Schalke 04 vs Augsburg predicted XI: Oh, sweet redemption
By Josh Sippie
Midfield
The midfield is the engine room—or rather, it should be. Against Dortmund it was anything but. It was a shambolic, paper house that blew over every time Dortmund exhaled. It’s not like David Wagner can do much about that. He has to deal with injuries to Harit and Mascarell and a continuing fluctuation with Alessandro Schopf.
As such, I really like the four midfielders because it reinforces the flanks and let’s our two all-action central midfielders do their all-action thing. Suat Serdar and Weston McKennie are the guys for that job. They are clearly lacking without Mascarell, but the more they are tasked with specific jobs, the better they will do them… hopefully.
Outside of them, we’re likely to see Daniel Caligiuri play wide right just ahead of Jonjoe Kenny, hopefully able to help out defensively there when need be.
On the other side, I’m getting ambitious and hoping Rabbi Matondo gets the start. Maybe tasking him to play a midfield role, with a need to get back and defend, is a little audacious of me, but again—we need change. Something has to be different and Matondo can provide that spark.
Attack next.