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·24 September 2023
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·24 September 2023
Schalke have announced that defender Timo Baumgartl has been fined and sent to play for the under-23s after comments made during his post match interview on Saturday night.
After Schalke’s 3-1 loss to St Pauli on Saturday night, Baumgartl spoke to Sky Germany about the defeat: “I don’t know how to explain it. Sometimes we run after men, then it’s position on top of each other. There’s no compactness, that’s our big problem. I think it’s very difficult for us to achieve compactness the duels come. We are always a step too late. I think the first 30 minutes, it’s the same as in Magdeburg. If it’s 3-0 here, we don’t have to complain.
The former Union Berlin and VfB Stuttgart defender then commented on the team’s support of coach, Thomas Reis: “He gives us a plan. But of course it’s sometimes difficult for us to see it that way, to do it that way, because of course we keep running into these situations. We train it during the week, we’re meticulous. I think we’re constantly in communication, always trying to adjust things, even adjust them during the week. But it always comes back to the same thing, in the first 30 minutes. And we have to look at that, we have to analyze it. Because if… If we approach every game like that, against strong teams, then it will be brutally difficult for us and then you are always behind and I don’t think we can always catch up by one goal or two goals, you sometimes have to keep a clean sheet. I think that’s the case That’s simply our goal. You have to be compact. Other teams show us that too, that you can keep a game to zero and we’re always good for a goal, that’s not the problem. It’s just that we can’t always get three . And if you concede more than two goals on average, then that’s far too much for our demands, far too much for what we set out to do.”
The 27 year old also commented on if there is any unrest within the team: “Of course we know that Schalke is a big club and that there is always unrest, but of course rightly so. We started the season here with different demands. We can’t get it on the pitch yet. I think last week We showed a reaction, but ultimately you have to talk about this first half, it could be 0:4, 0:5, you can honestly say. This first half today, yes after 30 minutes, we’re catching ourselves a bit , but of course it’s completely normal that the fans are angry, that the club is angry, that the environment is angry because it can’t continue like this. We now have 7 points after 7 games and are probably in 16th place. Yes, that is simply far too little for our demands and again, 15 goals conceded, we really have to sit together and see that things are finally going in the right direction, because of course that’s how you get into the vortex. And we all know how hard it is 2nd league is.”
Baumgartl has now been fined and will begin next week training with the under-23s. Whether the 27 year old will be available for Schalke’s next game against Paderborn is yet to be seen.
Schalke’s loss against St Pauli leaves them in 15th place, one point clear of Hertha Berlin in 16th who have a game in hand. For most of this season, Schalke have struggled defensively conceding 15 goals which is the second worst in the 2.Bundesliga behind Osnabruck who are currently bottom.
GGFN | Jack Meenan