Leverkusen vs Schalke - disappointed among themselves
Channel: sportsCrazyChannel
Date: 28/04/2017

Leverkusen vs Schalke - disappointed among themselves

The duel Leverkusen against Schalke sounds like one
Top game in the football league. This season, however, is the meeting of two problem clubs.

It is a season to forget, both for Bayer 04 Leverkusen and for FC Schalke 04. Bayer has always been among the top five teams in the table for the past seven years, playing four times in a row in the Champions League. Schalke had been in the king's class three times in the past five seasons, and at the end of the season he always took a place among the top six of the table.

Völler: "Cursed Season"

This year both clubs are lagging behind their expectations. Bayer 04 Leverkusen has been playing his weakest season for 14 years. Sportchef Rudi Völler spurned a "cursed season" after the recent 1: 2 defeat at SC Freiburg. The European Cup is virtually unattainable for Bayer. The distance to the descent zone is just four points. Such feelings are no longer known in Leverkusen. "We do not look up, that's definitely forbidden," said Völler.

Roger Schmidt's coach change to Tayfun Korkut has not improved - on the contrary. Korkut won only one of his seven Bundesliga games with Bayer (2: 1 at the last league of Darmstadt). He is the most unsuccessful coach in Leverkusen's Bundesliga history.

Problems rear as front

A little hope for improvement is likely to be the imminent return of interior defender Jonathan Tah. The defense line around Aleksander Dragovic did not last very well. But the problems lie not only in the defense, but also in the attack. In the seven matches under Korkut Bayer scored only seven goals - three of them alone in the spectacular 3: 3 against Wolfsburg.

That the game against Schalke in the domestic Bayarena takes place is not necessarily an advantage for Bayer 04. The Leverkusener occupies in the home table only the 13th rank. In the past four home games there was no victory. Five unbeaten home games were played last eight years under coach Bruno Labbadia - and the matches took place in the evasive stadium in Düsseldorf.
Schalke this season away from home

But maybe the FC Schalke 04 is exactly the right opponent to break through this series. Because away games are for S04 this season rather Trauerspiele. Just ten points, with two wins and eleven goals, brought Schalke up to now. And in the last four seasons, the Schalke have to run three times away.

At the very least, Schalke had a little bit of a success after the bitter break in Ajax Amsterdam in the Bundesliga against Ajax Amsterdam: home against RB Leipzig there was a 1: 1. "There is a lot of applause for the team, we showed a great morale after Thursday, with a bitter break in the heads, so the performance is not high enough today," said coach Markus Weinzierl after the match.

Weinzierl worse than Di Matteo

As a reason for the poor performance this season in Gelsenkirchen gladly to the historical defeat with five defeats one piece at a time. In fact, the team got caught up a bit, but the performances in the past months were not really good. Similar to Tayfun Korkut on Leverkusen side also Schalke coach Markus Weinzierl does not meet the expectations so far. With a score of 1.27 points per game, he even scored fewer points on average than Roberto Di Matteo (1.48), who was chased by the court. The result: Schalke is not as bad this season as in 17 years.

The possible constellations:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Leno; Hilbert, Tah, Toprak, Henrichs; Baumgartlinger, Kampl; Brandt, Volland, Mehmedi; Kiessling.
FC Schalke 04: Fährmann; Coke, Höwedes, Nastasic, Kolasinac; Stambouli, Bentaleb; Schöpf, Goretzka, Caligiuri; Burgstaller.
Referee: Fritz (basket).