2nd league
Schalke’s Geraerts with a firm hand: “Will not give up”
Schalke coach Karel Geraerts and his team are in the middle of the fight to stay in the league. photo
© Roland Weihrauch/dpa
A flood of goals conceded, a relegation battle and a clear indication of Ouwejan’s lack of discipline. Schalke’s coach gets loud and takes action.
“It’s not five to twelve, it’s twelve!” warned the coach. “And I hope all the players have understood that. If not, I’ll explain it to them,” said the new Schalke head coach, who already has four defeats to his name after six games.
Early changes – trouble with Ouwejan
After his team’s bloodless performance in the first half, Geraerts had two recipes ready. First of all, he changed three players after half an hour and also caused the displeasure of Thomas Ouwejan. The Dutchman was angry about the early substitution, refused to shake hands and showed no understanding. His coach was very angry. “I will not accept such behavior,” said the coach and complained about his player’s lack of respect.
The Belgian also became very loud in the dressing room at halftime. “That’s normal,” he said. At least his team, which was quickly down 3-0, got into the game better, scoring three goals from Marcin Kaminski, Tomas Kalas and Bryan Lasme, but Düsseldorf countered the 3-4 goal, hit back again to win 5-3 and secured once again creating a great spectacle at a Saturday evening game in the arena. Most recently, the team turned a 3-0 deficit against 1. FC Kaiserslautern into a 4-3 win.
With 33 goals conceded, Schalke have conceded the most goals, are stuck in 16th place and show little hope of improvement. Goalscorer Kaminski, one of Schalke’s better players, explained that all players were aware of the seriousness of the situation. “It annoys everyone and we want to do everything we can to get out of this situation,” said the Poland international.