Hertha BSC: Sandro Schwarz sees relegation peaks against Schalke as a huge opportunity

Deployment guarantee for Lukébakio

Dodi Lukébakio has received a guarantee from Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz for the basement duel in the Bundesliga at FC Schalke 04. “Dodi will be on the pitch where he can use his speed,” said the Berlin coach before the groundbreaking duel in the relegation battle on Friday (8:30 p.m.) in Gelsenkirchen. At the same time, Schwarz also protected the 25-year-old Belgian after four games without a goal. “It will not decide Dodi alone,” said the 44-year-old on Wednesday about the starting position in the Berlin storm, which was recently criticized.

With 31 goals – ten of them from Lukébakio – the Berliners have the third weakest attack in the Bundesliga. Only VfL Bochum (30 goals) and Schalke (21) scored less often. After all, Black has a large selection of personnel on the offensive: In addition to Lukébakio, Jessic Ngankam (3 goals), Wilfried Kanga (2), Florian Niederlechner (0) and again the long-term injured Stevan Jovetic (2) are options. Youngster Derry Scherhant (1) is another alternative. All in all, you have to “radiate more goal danger”, demanded Schwarz.

Before matchday 28, Hertha is one point ahead of bottom-placed Schalke in penultimate place, with a defeat the Berliners would slip to 18th place. With a win, on the other hand, contact with the non-relegation places could be restored. “There is a huge opportunity in the game. We need stability and straightforwardness on the pitch to find space against the opponent’s man-orientation. We have to fight back physically and bring in the quality of football,” emphasized Schwarz.

However, the Hertha coach rates the experience of his team in the successful relegation battle of recent years as positive. “The fact that one or the other player has played there before can be an advantage,” said Schwarz.

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