<b>Bundesliga MD 19 Preview – Bayern against Schalke</b>
Schalke 04 is one of the more positive surprises of the season. Against Bayern at the weekend, the “miners” seek to underline this impression. Our preview.“Which of you has ever won against Bayern München?”, David Wagner asked his players in training earlier this week. At the pre-match press conference, he did not let the journalists guess for long: “There were not many.”Omar Mascarell beat Bayern in the 2018 DFB-Pokal final with Eintracht Frankfurt and Daniel Caligiuri even has two wins against Bayern to his name: In 2015 he was in the starting eleven of the Wolfsburg team that beat Bayern 4-1 at home in the Bundesliga. Later that year, he also won the Supercup with Wolfsburg against Bayern on penalties.Then there is Suat Serdar, who even won 2-4 at Bayern in 2014. However, this was with the U19 of Mainz 05. There are two obvious reasons why there are not too many players at Schalke who have won against Bayern over the course of their careers. Number 1: The average Schalke player is 24.6 years old (3rd place in the league). So most players have not had much opportunity to win against Bayern so far. And if there are players who have played against Bayern before, they have not been very successful (reason number 2).Schalke themselves have been without a win against Bayern since 2011. Back then they won 1-0 in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal at the Allianz Arena, and since then Bayern has won 16 games and drawn three. To improve on this record, Wagner has a clear demand: “Our kind of football” is what he wants to see from his team.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/2FCBS04.jpg">Media</a><a href="#fc-schalke-04-the-first-real-test-for-bayern-in-2020"></a>FC Schalke 04: The first real test for Bayern in 2020?But what does their kind of football look like? Anyone with an interest in Schalke’s new coach David Wagner before the season will have read many articles in which one information in particular kept being reiterated: Wagner was the best man of Jürgen Klopp at his wedding.The connection between Wagner and Liverpool’s head coach is indeed an interesting one, especially from a tactical perspective. Because if you look at Schalke’s development over the past half year, the “Royal Blues” have acquired a new playmaker: gegenpressing.Schalke have already scored five goals from gegenpressing breaks (2nd place behind RB Leipzig with 6). They have the seventh highest share of possession in the Bundesliga (50.4%), but they also have the ninth most interceptions (11.3) and the seventh most tackles per game (17.3) at the same time. In comparison: Gladbach as a team with similar possession stats and very aggressive pressing have 12.7 interceptions and 16.8 tackles per game.<a href="#aggression-speed-and-risk"></a>Aggression, speed and riskThese statistics foster the impression that Wagner attaches great importance to pressing. Schalke usually plays in a very flexible 4-4-2 formation. Against a back three, for example, the ball-side wide midfield player pushes up in attack, while the other three players close the gap. Wagner has already tried almost every variation of a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formation there is.On average, Schalke allow their opponents only 9.02 passes until they actively challenge them. This is a top value in the Bundesliga, bettered only by Bayern (7.15), Leverkusen (7.37), and Wolfsburg (8.71). Gladbach (9.36), RB Leipzig (10.07) and Dortmund (10.42) are somewhat less efficient here.Schalke’s game is very vertical. After winning the ball, their goal is not to keep it in possession as long as possible, but to pick up speed immediately. Their pass completion rate of 77.1% only ranks 9th in the league. In addition, they only play an average of 9.28 passes until they turn over the ball (rank 14).1Wagner demands an accurate and courageous positional play from his players to offer them a good starting position for gegenpressing in case of a turnover.…
Schalke 04 is one of the more positive surprises of the season. Against Bayern at the weekend, the “miners” seek to underline this impression. Our preview.“Which of you has ever won against Bayern München?”, David Wagner asked his players in training earlier this week. At the pre-match press conference, he did not let the journalists guess for long: “There were not many.”Omar Mascarell beat Bayern in the 2018 DFB-Pokal final with Eintracht Frankfurt and Daniel Caligiuri even has two wins against Bayern to his name: In 2015 he was in the starting eleven of the Wolfsburg team that beat Bayern 4-1 at home in the Bundesliga. Later that year, he also won the Supercup with Wolfsburg against Bayern on penalties.Then there is Suat Serdar, who even won 2-4 at Bayern in 2014. However, this was with the U19 of Mainz 05. There are two obvious reasons why there are not too many players at Schalke who have won against Bayern over the course of their careers. Number 1: The average Schalke player is 24.6 years old (3rd place in the league). So most players have not had much opportunity to win against Bayern so far. And if there are players who have played against Bayern before, they have not been very successful (reason number 2).Schalke themselves have been without a win against Bayern since 2011. Back then they won 1-0 in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal at the Allianz Arena, and since then Bayern has won 16 games and drawn three. To improve on this record, Wagner has a clear demand: “Our kind of football” is what he wants to see from his team.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/2FCBS04.jpg">Media</a><a href="#fc-schalke-04-the-first-real-test-for-bayern-in-2020"></a>FC Schalke 04: The first real test for Bayern in 2020?But what does their kind of football look like? Anyone with an interest in Schalke’s new coach David Wagner before the season will have read many articles in which one information in particular kept being reiterated: Wagner was the best man of Jürgen Klopp at his wedding.The connection between Wagner and Liverpool’s head coach is indeed an interesting one, especially from a tactical perspective. Because if you look at Schalke’s development over the past half year, the “Royal Blues” have acquired a new playmaker: gegenpressing.Schalke have already scored five goals from gegenpressing breaks (2nd place behind RB Leipzig with 6). They have the seventh highest share of possession in the Bundesliga (50.4%), but they also have the ninth most interceptions (11.3) and the seventh most tackles per game (17.3) at the same time. In comparison: Gladbach as a team with similar possession stats and very aggressive pressing have 12.7 interceptions and 16.8 tackles per game.<a href="#aggression-speed-and-risk"></a>Aggression, speed and riskThese statistics foster the impression that Wagner attaches great importance to pressing. Schalke usually plays in a very flexible 4-4-2 formation. Against a back three, for example, the ball-side wide midfield player pushes up in attack, while the other three players close the gap. Wagner has already tried almost every variation of a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formation there is.On average, Schalke allow their opponents only 9.02 passes until they actively challenge them. This is a top value in the Bundesliga, bettered only by Bayern (7.15), Leverkusen (7.37), and Wolfsburg (8.71). Gladbach (9.36), RB Leipzig (10.07) and Dortmund (10.42) are somewhat less efficient here.Schalke’s game is very vertical. After winning the ball, their goal is not to keep it in possession as long as possible, but to pick up speed immediately. Their pass completion rate of 77.1% only ranks 9th in the league. In addition, they only play an average of 9.28 passes until they turn over the ball (rank 14).1Wagner demands an accurate and courageous positional play from his players to offer them a good starting position for gegenpressing in case of a turnover.…
