The Bundesliga is often a difficult league to get a proper grasp on, as much of the league tends to be fairly close in terms of quality and results. It’s not wholly unusual for a club to finish in or near the Champions League places one year and in the bottom half of the table the next, or vice versa (although that’s not stopping people from freaking out over Dortmund’s current predicament).
What direction will Schalke go with their eternal chaos?
Seemingly an example of Chaos Theory put in to practice, Schalke are the hardest team in Germany to predict anything for.
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No club has experienced that kind of volatility more than Schalke 04, with the side from Gelsenkirchen soaring to wild highs and falling to crushing lows throughout their history. In any given season, they're as likely to flirt with relegation as they are to fight with the big boys for top spots in the league, and in fact it hasn't been entirely unusual over the past decade or so for them to start so poorly that they're in or near relegation places early in a season, then finish in or near the Bundesliga's Champions League spots.
That's been the case so far this season. Schalke started off by losing to third-division side Dynamo Dresden in the DFB-Pokal, then went on to lose three of their first seven league matches. By early October, Schalke were firmly in the bottom half of the table, and no one was surprised when Jens Keller was sacked. New manager Roberto Di Matteo used his disciplined tactics to guide Schalke to six wins in 10 in the Bundesliga, though the inconsistencies remain, with the Royal Blues losing to relegation-threatened sides Freiburg and Köln. Still, they've climbed back up to fifth, even on points with Borussia Mönchengladbach, and salvaged a spot in the Champions League Round of 16, though Di Matteo's reward was being drawn against defending champions Real Madrid.
While Di Matteo's Schalke side perhaps lacks the excitement that the assembled squad has the potential to carry, his structured and efficient setup has been a good one for Die Königsblauen. He's managed to pull quality matches out of the tired legs of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, is able to make good use of talented youngster Max Meyer, and has coaxed an impressive nine goals from versatile forward Eric Choupo-Moting. Contrary to some opinions, Di Matteo is hardly afraid to attack his opposition on the pitch, he'd just rather do it in a way that doesn't leave his side horribly exposed at the back, something not all of his predecessors at Schalke have understood.
Gelsenkirchen’s finest may not be as sexy as their fans hoped heading in to the season, but they’ve put together a solid foundation to build from in the second half of the season. Especially after the addition of promising Serbian defender Matija Nastasic to a central defense group that’s a little banged up -- and, honestly, has been a little disappointing at times this season -- there’s a lot of reason to think that Di Matteo’s men can make a lot of noise after the Winterpause, making sure they’re in the running for a Champions League spot.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that things will go horribly, terribly wrong, as so often does for Schalke. Manager meltdowns, dressing room revolts, horrible runs of injury luck, match-fixing scandals, it’s all happened to Schalke at some point or another, and there’s always a feeling that the scarred side of the coin might well be face up on the next flip.
If you want to see just how weird things can be for Schalke, take a look at their 2010-11 season. It began with Felix Magath in charge, looking to build on the previous year’s second-place finish with a stronger squad, and Schalke fans were excited. Then came four straight losses and six in Schalke’s first 10 matches. Despite their relative success in the group stage of the Champions League, winning four matches in a group that didn’t exactly inspire fear and spending almost half the season in the relegation zone with wildly unstable lineups cost Magath his job.
Club legend Ralf Ragnick came in and saved the day to some extent; he kept Schalke clear of relegation and helped his side claw their way to a Champions League semi-final berth. But because things are never easy or sane with Schalke, they finished a disappointing 14th in the Bundesliga thanks to a four-match losing streak to end the season. After never taking Schalke higher than ninth, Ragnick would resign less than two months into the next season citing exhaustion.
That volatility seems to follow Schalke around. Just look at some of this season's results: in the first four weeks, Schalke lost to a mediocre Hannover 96 side, put in a tremendous shift to hold Bayern Munich to a draw, got thumped by a Gladbach team that hadn't found its stride yet, then drew another mediocre team in Frankfurt. The Royal Blues then ran off two straight wins against Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund, though in hindsight those results are less impressive considering that the sides now sit 16th and 17th in the table.
Welcome back, Bundesliga!
Welcome back, Bundesliga!
One benefit that Di Matteo's more restrained tactical style brings is a better degree of stability. All other things being even, you're far less likely to see wild swings in form with Di Matteo than you are in a more free-wheeling manager. Sometimes he can be a little too conservative away from home, a trait that cost Schalke chances to win at Bayer Leverkusen and in the Champions League against Sporting Lisbon. Still, most Schalke fans would rather deal with periodic regret than regularly tearing their hair out in frustration, as they have too often in their lives.
And even with that restraint, it's not as though Schalke are a boring side. With Choupo-Moting and Huntelaar banging in goals, Roman Neustädter bossing midfield, and the exciting young talents of Julian Draxler and Max Meyer ever lurking and waiting to shine, Schalke can't be counted out of any match. They can out-run, out-flash, and out-shoot nearly any opponent they face except for the true elite of Europe, and even those sides they can hang around with on most days. If you can claim that, your club is in pretty good shape.
It would be nice to give a firm prediction as to what comes next for Schalke this season, but the fact is that even with Di Matteo in charge, their history is so bizarre that it’s impossible to say they’ll succeed or fail with any certainty. All you can truly guarantee is that it won’t be boring. Schalke fans can only hope that things stay sane in Gelsenkirchen down the stretch of the season, because it’s when sanity loses its grip that things go sideways for them.
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