Loris Karius: It’s not about the table, it’s about what we demand of ourselves

Loris Karius was without doubt the man of the hour (and-a-half) as FC Schalke 04 picked up a point at the Olympiastadion on Saturday night (17/1), making a number of crucial saves to secure a clean sheet in Berlin. For the 32-year-old shot-stopper, though, his own performance against Hertha BSC took a backseat in his post-match analysis.

2. Bundesliga

Loris Karius and Nikola Katic, about to embrace.

When the referee blew the whistle to call time in Berlin, the Royal Blues knew exactly who they had to thank for being able to bring a point back to Gelsenkirchen: goalkeeper Loris Karius can take a lot of credit for the 0-0 draw in the capital. Head coach Miron Muslic was full of praise for the keeper, saying: “Loris saved us today, but he’s been performing to this incredible standard for six, seven months now.” Captain Kenan Karaman echoed the sentiment. “We have the best keeper in the division, but we can’t be leaving him to do all that on his own,” he said.

I would prefer it if we were raving about Schalke’s performance today, not just my own.

Loris Karius

How about the man himself? He wasn’t so keen to have the compliments heaped upon him. “I would prefer it if we were raving about Schalke’s performance today, not just my own.” The 32-year-old had an idea of where the Royal Blues went wrong in Berlin. “Unfortunately today, we just weren’t quite there. Hertha played a really good game, of course, but that kind of match is never just played by one team. We weren’t good today, we were surprisingly easy to play through, usually we’re a lot more defensively solid than that.” Karius wasn’t thinking about the table in his post-game summary, with the Knappen currently topping the division with 38 points. “It’s not about the table, it’s about what we demand of ourselves.”

With six saves across the 90 minutes, a personal best this season, the experienced keeper proved to be more than a match for Hertha’s attack on the night. More impressive still is the fact that Karius’ dazzling performance between the sticks delivered Schalke’s tenth clean sheet of the current campaign. Not only does that represent the best record in the 2. Bundesliga, but Schalke’s number 1 can also boast the league’s best save percentage rate, having turned away 80% of the shots he’s faced since the start of the season. “At the end of the day, it’s my job to do this, but also it’s important to say that the lads in front of me have helped a lot to get us to this point,” said Karius, emphasising the credit due to S04’s defensive unit. Nevertheless, following the goalless draw in Berlin, he concluded: “Today there was a lot coming my way, with some really threatening moments. But I’m happy that I was able to help the team.”

Focus shifts to Kaiserslautern

Karius and his Schalke teammates now turn their gaze away from the capital and back to the VELTINS-Arena, with 1. FC Kaiserslautern making the trip up to Gelsenkirchen next Sunday (25/1). The Red Devils came out on top in the reverse fixture 1-0, converting a penalty to score the only goal of the affair. Karius’ intentions for the game are clear: keep yet another clean sheet and defend his goal at all costs – and then afterwards, celebrate not just his own performance, but a successful day for the whole team.

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