Schalke 04: 3 hidden positives in another embarrassing defeat
By Josh Sippie
Schalke 04 suffered another debilitating defeat and just like that, the reasons to stay positive are dwindling. But we’ve still got three for you.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any uglier, Schalke 04 step up to bat and hit a grand slam. Getting tossed 5-0 once is bad enough, twice is awful. 4-0 to Dortmund is piss poor, but 3-0 to both FC Koln and FC Augsburg is inexcusable, and to add to the mess, Suat Serdar now joins the injured list alongside Amine Harit, Omar Mascarell, and more.
Everything feels awful right now, as Schalke have now gone nine without a win, with that last win being such a resounding victory over Borussia Monchengladbach. In those nine matches, they’ve scored just a single goal, and that coming against Hoffenheim.
What made this match against Augsburg particularly hard to stomach, however, was the individual mistakes. The second and third goals were each the result of a poor giveaway or individual mistake, and there’s no defending that. It’s just poor focus and poor quality from a team that is normally so much tidier. At least when they’re actually playing with some kind of inspiration.
Schalke 04 are plummeting, but here are 3 reasons to stay positive
But as we always do, we dug in and found some positives. You may notice a decrease in the number of positives from the Revierderby but, well, there’s just less to be positive about these days. Still, let’s talk about the three things we can still be optimistic about from Augsburg.
We start with No. 3.
3. Alessandro Schop looked good
Schalke has spent a good deal of time trying to find the best of creative midfielder Alessandro Schopf and while he has always shown glimpses of what he could be, the final product was always lacking. He couldn’t find consistency.
This year has been no different. A lot of bursts, but nothing that stuck. In fact, he rarely ever put together a complete 90 minutes of positivity, mixing the bag even on a small scale.
Against Augsburg though, he actually looked really good. He was tasked with covering for Amine Harit’s absence and he did that, creating two chances, completing four dribbles, and proving to be a bright spot in a dead area.
On to No. 2.