Schalke are a disaster, and they can’t even start the cleanup yet

With just one point from three games, Schalke 04 sit 16th in the Bundesliga, with a goal differential of minus four. Their 4-1 loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday wasn't remotely surprising, and the margin of defeat should have been much worse. Schalke's only goal was gifted to them by way of a penalty granted for a handball, and goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann was arguably their best player. A 10-0 Gladbach win would probably have been a better reflection of what took place on the pitch.

This was the fourth consecutive weak performance by the Royal Blues, with their sole point in Bundesliga play coming against Bayern Munich. But don't let their draw against the Bavarians fool you -- Schalke were hardly involved in the game until their goal and, again, should have lost by a significant margin. Their opening day loss saw them give up a lead, and their other defeat was against a third-division side in the DFB-Pokal.

As with most other Schalke meltdowns in the past decade, this is one that the board has brought on themselves. Schalke have a popular star at the back in World Cup winner Benedikt Höwedes, but he's been inconsistent over the course of his career, which probably has a lot to do with having poor defensive partners and a revolving door of goalkeepers behind him since Manuel Neuer left for Bayern Munich. Not only did Schalke do nothing to improve an obviously porous defense, but they actively made it worse by loaning out Kyriakos Papadopoulos. They inexplicably made no effort to improve at central defense or defensive midfield, areas that should have been high priorities this summer.

And then there's the managerial situation. From the day Thomas Tuchel quit his post at Mainz, there has been speculation that he'd go to Schalke, and their board hasn't done a great job of reassuring everyone that Jens Keller's job is safe. No one seems to believe their assertions that a change isn't on the cards, even though it's September, and it would surprise few if Keller was out of a job before the leaves started changing colors. At best, he'll be allowed to run down his contract, which ends this summer. As a lame duck manager, he has virtually no authority and therefore no capacity to turn the team's fortunes around.

The signing of Sidney Sam from top-four rivals Bayer Leverkusen, along with the retention of Julian Draxler and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, had many predicting a comfortable top four finish for Schalke. And it's possible that they improve if or when Felipe Santana, Joel Matip and Jan Kirchhoff all get healthy, but injuries have been the norm for these players, and expecting them fit together for a significant spell would be taking optimism to bizarre heights.