Schalke 04 is at the lowest point in the league in terms of various statistics that evaluate pressing, switching and goal risk. Frank Kramer must dare more offensive.
As so often in recent years, Schalke 04 lack offensive danger. Even under the leadership of Frank Kramer, this has not changed. On the contrary: the Gelsenkircheners are at the bottom of the league in terms of numerous values.
It doesn’t take statistics and values to be able to say that Schalke hardly get any offensive danger on the pitch even in this young season. In the pre-season and even before that, as a profile description for the new coach, it was announced that courageous, offensive and passionate play should be played, these words have long since fizzled out.
Although the start of the season could have gone worse, the royal blue need significantly more goal danger. No team can stay in the league just by preventing goals from being conceded. Especially not if you don’t win against the direct competition on a regular basis.
Kramer focus on pressing and winning the ball: Schalke is far too bad in the league comparison
So if you take a look at the statistics, this feeling is clearly supported and confirmed. the WAZ has along with Create Football worked out in which values the blue and white shoe pinches. Unsurprisingly, it affects everything that has to do with the ball and the offensive.
The problem starts with the core of the game system Frank Kramer is aiming for. He wants to switch over by winning the ball and thus radiate a goal threat.
The problem: In terms of pressing efficiency, i.e. the quality of the pressing situations, Schalke is at the bottom of the league. The players are overplayed far too often, so that the pressure that is often created is in vain.
Accordingly, S04 hardly manages to really play out counterattacks – even though such situations are the focus. With 13 counterattacks per game, you are in 14th place.
Possession of the ball is hardly an issue at S04 – as are offensive advances
And when it comes to possession of the ball, the other variant of the game, almost nothing happens. On the one hand, because the Gelsenkircheners rarely have the ball like no other team. On average, they have just 39 percent possession of the ball, which corresponds to a duration of around 20 minutes. Not just a weak value, but one that is also at the bottom of the league.
So Schalke does not get chances to score either by switching or by owning the ball. On average, only 35 passes are played in the attack third. Also here: league low. When it comes to attacks in the opponent’s half of the field (17th place) and in the opponent’s penalty area (15th place), it doesn’t look much better either.
You really don’t have to be an expert to see how problematic this lack of development is. And that – as I said – at the core of Kramer’s style of play.
What has saved the miners so far have been the standard situations. Three of the eight goals scored were the direct result of a free kick. In general, the high balls, i.e. the crosses, are a positive downside: Both the accuracy is 38 percent in third place in the league, as well as the number of crosses, which at 13.5 in the 90 minutes is enough for sixth place.
Overall, the values that accompany the Schalke game are quite worrying. The focus of this first of two evaluations was on the part of the WAZ on the bad statistics, but they all concern the ball play and the general offensive. Where the shoe pinched in recent years, it seems to be getting even worse under Kramer (so far).
Everything about S04 at 90min:
This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
