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Coach number five: Dimitrios Grammozis should handle the Bundesliga season at FC Schalke with dignity
Photo:
FRIEDEMANN VOGEL / POOL / EPA
Plagued by cramps, two FC Schalke 04 players were sitting on the lawn again.
Goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow shot the ball towards the coaching benches to allow time for rest and treatment.
But the ball stayed just before the sideline and had to be pushed out by a Mainz player.
This scene is very good to describe the Schalke season.
A game that the bottom of the table should have won in order to stir up a little hope in order to be able to speak of a coach effect, ended against the table-17.
0-0 - and rightly so.
"In the end you can be lucky that you took a point," said captain Sead Kolašinac, who had to be replaced, exhausted and battered.
"We'll take the point with us," said the new trainer Dimitrios Grammozis.
He held on to his three central defenders until the last of the 95 spooky minutes of Bundesliga football, before that two players were in the center of midfield.
The "depth in the squad" was missing to "bring some relief," said Grammozis.
Instead of the courage of despair, there was again only despair at Schalke.
The physical deficits are striking, and with a team without international games it is obvious to see the cause in poor training.
Werner Leuthard, the responsible »Head of Performance Licensed Player«, fell victim to the loss of personnel a week earlier.
Grammozis and his staff have little chance of correcting physical deficits in the last third of the season.
"Hope is far from dead," said Suat Serdar, when a little courage mingled with despair after the final whistle.
His long-range shot in the second half (81st minute) and a header from Shkodran Mustafi (17th) in the first were the two noteworthy offensive actions of Schalke.
Two - during a whole game.
Mainz were also harmless, but fired eleven shots in the opponent's penalty area.
At least you got into that room where the probability of getting a hit increases enormously.
With Schalke it was only the header.
The playful poverty is frightening, and the new sports director Peter Knäbel is faced with the great challenge of putting together a squad that at least significantly reduces the deficits.
A win in 40 Bundesliga games
Schalke only won one of the last 40 Bundesliga games.
That has often and rightly been explained with hair-raising mistakes on the defensive.
But the club have missed 13 out of 24 games this season alone.
The elementary prerequisite for winning a game was often not given at all.
After the likely relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga, Schalke will have to radically change their approach.
It will take many victories to climb back up immediately.
The teams that currently occupy the two direct promotion places in the second division have won more than half of their games.
Grammozis is therefore in a bind.
With the courage of desperation, he could begin to change tactics in the coming weeks.
In view of the opponents, VfL Wolfsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen, he then runs the risk of being countered badly.
Mix of young players and experienced professionals
On the other hand, it would point the way that will probably have to be followed after the summer break.
When he made his debut, he took the path of increasingly relying on young players from his own youth academy, the »Knappenschmiede«.
The 18-year-old Kerim Çalhanoğlu made his premier in the Bundesliga at the left end of the five-man chain, although Bastian Oczipka was an experienced alternative.
Can Bozdoğan (19 years old) started in midfield, while Omar Mascarell and Benjamin Stambouli sat on the bench.
In addition to the central and experienced central defender Mustafi, Timo Becker (23) and Malick Thiaw (19) played.
One year older Jan Luca Schuler was substituted on for Matthew Hoppe (19).
He is a center forward, but scored only four goals in 19 appearances for Schalke 04 II in the Regionalliga West.
Peter Knäbel and the squad planning committee, in which U19 coach Norbert Elgert also sits, have to put together a mix of these young players and more experienced professionals who can cope with the special requirements in the second division, with a significantly slimmed-down staff budget.
Amine Harit is likely to be missing from the future squad because he is one of the few who can bring transfer proceeds.
He is up to the demands of the Bundesliga, is quick, tricky and puts his teammates on the offensive to be good.
Grammozis had planned him for the position of the "ten" against Mainz.
Harit injured himself while warming up.
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