Miron Muslic: Maximum intensity and full focus

With the fixture taking place shortly before Christmas, Muslic acknowledged the special relationship between the two clubs and their supporters. “I didn’t come across anything like this during my time in Austria, Belgium or England,” said the 43-year-old. “It’s something special and it will make this game a real highlight.” At the same time, he was clear about Schalke’s priorities: “For us, it’s about our performance and the result above all else. That’s what matters.”

Despite Schalke going into the match as league leaders, with Nürnberg currently 11th, Muslic is not reading too much into the current 2. Bundesliga standings. “Nürnberg had a difficult start and needed some time to find their rhythm,” he explained. “But over the past few weeks, you can clearly see their progress.” In their last eight league games, FCN have only been beaten once, suffering a 3-0 defeat at 1. FC Magdeburg in their last away match. They most recently drew 2-2 at home against local rivals SpVgg Greuther Fürth.

Schalke therefore know what kind of task awaits them. “They’re well organised, have players with real individual quality and work well as a team,” Muslic said. “They’ll push us to our limits. It will be another tight game, and we’ll need to be at our best to come out on top. We’ve earned our position in the table and need to continue playing with maximum intensity and full focus.” Once again, Muslic sees defensive stability as the foundation. Even after the recent 2-0 win away at Fortuna Düsseldorf, he felt there was room for improvement. “We allowed them opportunities that we normally don’t, and we addressed that during the week. Now it’s about getting back to the basics, being solid at the back and using that as the basis to create chances going forward.”

Lasme and Bachmann unavailable

Schalke will be without Bryan Lasme this weekend. The forward suffered a medial ligament injury in training and will be sidelined for several weeks. There was better news regarding captain Kenan Karaman, who was able to train fully again after being substituted as a precaution in Düsseldorf. Ron Schallenberg and Timo Becker also looked good in training during the week. “We’ll keep an eye on things and make a final decision on them both closer to Sunday,” Muslic added. Janik Bachmann, however, remains unavailable. “We tried a number of different approaches, but unfortunately he won’t be ready in time.”