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Kenan Karaman: That was a clear decision for me
FC Schalke 04 picked up their third win of the season with a 1-0 victory away at Dynamo Dresden on Sunday (31/08). After the game, schalke04.de gathered the coaches’ thoughts, as well as reactions from captain Kenan Karaman and director of professional football, Youri Mulder.
Head coach Miron Muslic:
That was hard work today. But the 2. Bundesliga is no beauty contest – you have to show a lot of old-school qualities, sometimes ride your luck, and then make sure you get your reward. The first half showed the strength of our team spirit. We had lads playing who weren’t 100 percent fit but still wanted to be out there to help. And then in the second half, like last week against Bochum, we managed to turn the game our way with the substitutions. The way Ron won the ball before the penalty is exactly how we want to approach things: being aggressive and taking no prisoners to win possession. We should have done that more often, and that’s something we’ll keep working on. Now we have to stick to this path together, stay resilient, overcome challenges and grow from them.
Dynamo head coach Thomas Stamm:
Congratulations to Schalke on the win. I thought it was a very even game, in which we had the best chance for a long time through Christoph Daferner in the first half. We defended well against a Schalke effort after a turnover in the second half, but then we were a touch too rash in the build-up to the penalty. That’s something we have to learn from and improve. Overall, I still saw a good performance that I’m happy with – just not with the result. There were also situations where Schalke held their defensive line well and showed their quality, and sometimes it’s only a matter of being that one second too late that can swing a game in another direction.
Schalke captain Kenan Karaman:
In the end, we got our reward in a really tough match. We wanted to get our first away points on the board and I’m proud of how we defended – that was very good for long spells, and Dresden were caught offside time and again. We didn’t find many solutions going forward in the first half because we lacked composure on the ball. That’s something we need to improve, but early in the season, it’s all about picking up points because things don’t always run smoothly at the start. For me the penalty was immediately a clear decision. The referee told me he didn’t have a clear view, but after checking the monitor he came to the same conclusion.
Director of professional football Youri Mulder:
Everyone knows how tough it is to come here as the away side. We faced up to the challenge well, even in the difficult moments. Some of our lads played through the pain barrier and battled on, and everyone fought to the end. It probably wasn’t the most attractive of games for the neutral, but that’s football in the 2. Bundesliga – first and foremost, you have to battle and compete. If you win games that way, then over time, the footballing side of things will come too.
