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Four points from 13 games, 29 games in a row without winning and a club that has strayed far from its own values. Now Christian Gross arrives as the new coach, who is supposed to save Schalke 04 as a relegation firefighter. A task that couldn’t be more difficult. BLICK asked two absolute experts, when it comes to miners, what will happen to the people of Zurich. Peter Wenzel, “BILD” chief reporter: “Christian Gross expects nothing less than a miracle.” Sky reporter Dirk Schlarmann does better and talks about a task that amounts to a “suicide mission.” A Bundesliga team that only had four points after 13 games has never been saved.
Wrong choices
What Christian Gross will find in Gelsenkirchen is a club whose board is accused of sporting and financial mismanagement. Especially Jochen Schneider, “Schalke’s very controversial sporting director, who was very wrong with his last decisions,” says the Sky Schlarmann reporter. Although Gross’s previous predecessor David Wagner read that right – Schalke burned three coaches in four months, failed to win 16 games last season – Schneider continues to trust the 49-year-old at the start of this season. An error that later he wanted to compensate with the commitment of Manuel Baum. Many Schalker experts feared that “Manuel Baum is not the right type of coach for this complicated cabin, a team that is not necessarily considered easy to maintain,” explains Wenzel.
Marcel Reif on Schalke: “They do not have the battle for the descent in their DNA”(05:26)
Egomaniac and egocentric
That brings us to Christian Gross’s main task: rebuilding a mentally dead team, restoring their self-confidence again. “They no longer believe they can still do it,” says Schlarmann. So Gross has to build a unit out of this heap of misery. This from a team “without a sense of union, but with many egomaniacs and egocentric”, explains Schlarmann. “That was never a team that ran for each other. The mentality is lacking.
Bundesliga: Schalke was born from coal
But Gross doesn’t just have to do a great job mentally, he urgently needs to get the team back together. Because, according to the Sky expert, “if they don’t get two rockets, they don’t have a chance here.”
Why should Gross of all people be able to put an end to this misery? What about skepticism in the Ruhr area? And what really are Gross’s chances?
Peter Wenzel on Schneider’s motivation for involving Gross:
“Jochen Schneider considers Christian Gross to be an expert in combating downhill. Because he is a great leader, an authority in the cabin and, if necessary, an extremely tough dog. Schneider has chosen a firefighter that he knows and remembers successfully. ”
Dirk Schlarmann on the reservations about Gross:
“I know that the reserves against Gross, especially around Schalke, when it comes to fans and alumni, are huge. They all say: What do you want from him? He has not played in European football for eight years. His last stations were in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and not just once, but over a period of five and a half years. Everyone thinks that it has nothing to do with European football, much less with our club. It will probably be dated. So the reservations about his past are huge. “
Dirk Schlarmann on Gross’s reception in Gelsenkirchen:
“Christian Gross will have no problem here. On the one hand, he has the advantage of Corona and, on the other hand, that the Schalke fans criticize the board of directors, especially Jochen Schneider. Only Schneider is also charged with the move with Christian Gross. So Gross gets the criticism indirectly. The question is rather how he will be received by the team. “
Peter Wenzel on Gross’s chances:
“If in the first game against Hertha on January 2 the performance and above all the result are correct, then I think maybe something can be developed. The team is better than four points and better than downhill competitors Mainz and Bielefeld. Schalke can certainly reach 16th place in relegation. But a lot depends on the start and on whether Christian Gross can win the locker room and clear his head. “
Equalize the negative register
If Gross fails to win just two more games, he will go down in history as the manager who, with Schalke, managed to match the historic series of defeats in Tasmania Berlin. The Zurich man Höngg really has no choice but to re-score three points with the Blue and Whites after almost a year. Once this is done, the firefighter can immediately proceed with the next extinguishing operation: prevent Blau-Weiss from descending for the fourth time.
Return to the Bundesliga: Christian Gross is Schalke’s new coach!(00:33)
