Karel Geraerts: Use defensive stability as a springboard

Head coach Karel Geraerts is expecting a different sort of performance away from home compared to his side’s recent games. “It’s pretty simple: we have to improve away from home if we want to pick up any points,” explains the 42-year-old.

Geraerts is well aware of the strengths his team’s upcoming opponents possess. “Magdeburg play good football and enjoy plenty of possession. It’s on us to find a way to stop them scoring. We have a strategy in mind for how we’re going to go about that,” says the Schalke boss, who continues to have almost a full complement of players to pick from. Only Assan Ouédraogo und Leo Greiml, who are both progressing on a daily basis, remain short of full fitness.

Murkin returns from suspension

Derry John Murkin will be available again for the game at the weekend after serving a suspension. “I’ll need to make a decision,” said Geraerts when asked about his defensive set-up. S04 have only conceded a single goal in their last three matches.

Geraerts explained that the training sessions this week were oriented around defending. “We want to use defensive stability as a springboard to create attacking threats,” stated the head coach, who has had conversations with individual players in addition to group discussions with his squad over the course of the week. “We need to find the positives and single them out,” explained Geraerts. “It’s clear that we can only get out of this situation if we work together as a group.”