Schalke 04 has now been drubbed twice in a row from the restart of the Bundesliga, but there’s a distinction between the two that must be made.
When you lose 4-0 and 3-0 consecutively, it might not seem like that big of a need to draw distinctions between the two matches, in an effort to put a little buoyancy in this dying Schalke side, I’m going to go ahead and do just that.
Because, while Die Knappen was indeed torched two matches in a row, there was a major difference between the Dortmund drubbing and the Augsburg assault.
The big difference was in overall ability, and that is reflected in our corresponding player ratings here at Release the Knappen. I know it does nothing in terms of place on the table, but I still think it’s important to see that against Dortmund, we had a complete and utter breakdown. The entire team was undone from the inside out and there was zero hope.
Schalke played two very different matches despite the similar results
For Augsburg, despite the score, it was much different. A stunning free-kick goal early on gave them the lead and two individual mistakes gave them the other two goals. While that still sucks, there’s a big difference here.
Against Augsburg, Schalke was the more dominant side, score notwithstanding. They controlled more possession, they had more viable build-up play. Augsburg was stumped against the Royal Blue backline, but they didn’t have to force the issue. They just watched and waited.
But unlike against Dortmund, there were actually some guys who played well. Believe it or not, barring one misplaced pass for the second goal, Salif Sane was quite good and, even better, so was Matija Nastasic, who had no mistakes whatsoever.
Michael Gregoritsch attacked the ball well, despite never getting on the end of it, and Alessandro Schopf looked the creative engine that we needed. Rabbi Matondo showed good speed and threat in behind the Augsburg defense. The big problem was that early goal that allowed Augsburg to turtle up and deny the Royal Blues any entry.
This was not a match like Dortmund, despite the scoreline. I know it still sucks, and it may sound like I’m grasping at air, but I’m really not. There was a huge difference between these two matches and it gives me hope that without those individual mistakes, Die Knappen can still find a way back into their best form before the end of the year.