Even with a majority, no victory: Schalke 04, who have been promoted, have growing doubts about their suitability for the Bundesliga.
After the “serious blow to the neck” in the relegation battle, Schalke 04’s nerves were on edge. Simon Terodde sprinted halfway across the field, tussled with Augsburg keeper Rafal Gikiewicz in the goal net, lighters flew and FCA manager Stefan Reuter got a beer shower from the stands.
“Maybe I overreacted,” said striker Terodde after the bitter 2: 3 (1: 2) home defeat of the promoted team in the majority at DAZN, “it’s about defending the colors.” When the second division record scorer thought he had to defend the royal blue, it was already too late: Despite catching up with great fighting spirit, Schalke had lost the six-point game against one of the teams they wanted to leave behind – the doubts about of suitability for the Bundesliga grow.
“We didn’t defend well in general,” criticized U21 national player Tom Krauss and spoke of a “serious blow to the neck – our heads are down”. But not only the all too inexperienced defending defensive department, which also lost Sepp van den Berg, their best, with a serious foot injury, caused concern.
The unimaginative and for a long time ineffective offensive “concept” with long balls to the doubles with Terodde and Sebastian Polter revealed limited skills – on the pitch and on the bench.
Even when Terodde (33rd) and Krauss (63rd) equalized Ermedin Demirovic’s brace (10th and 21st) and Augsburg had weakened themselves with the yellow-red card for Mergim Berisha (71st), neither succeeded Coach Frank Kramer still the Schalke leaders to calm down and sort the actions on the field. Andre Hahn (77th) used another defensive mistake to knock out.
Kramer, who has been met with a lot of skepticism since taking office at Schalke, praised the “impact” of his dual leadership, but complained about the lack of “calm” and “precision” in the majority. A plan B with more game culture and combination football was apparently not available.
After the best start to the season in Augsburg, Reuter was able to take the beer shower of some Schalke fans with humor with four wins on the first eight match days. “Maybe they thought they had won,” said the sporting director, “in Bavaria it’s always the winner.”
Terodde attack “an absurdity”
However, Reuter found it extremely worrying that goalkeeper Gikiewicz had been pelted with lighters from the north stand and insulted throughout the second half: “That’s not right, the referee is required to do so, as is the home club.”
The fact that Terodde in turn accused the keeper of provocation and attacked him was “absurd”, said Reuter, but also advised Gikiewicz, who has often attracted attention, to “celebrate with his own fans”.
Schalke didn’t feel like celebrating at all, having so far only won against bottom-placed VfL Bochum. But Krauss “didn’t want to think about the descent now” “at all”. It is “much too early” for that.