Miron Muslic: There’s an incredible sense of excitement here

That feeling has been growing for some time. “There’s an incredible sense of excitement here – among the players, the staff and throughout the entire club,” explained Muslic. “We’ve given everything over the past 14 months to get FC Schalke 04 back where they belong. Now the Bundesliga season is here, and that means we have to give even more and work even harder.”

It’s now three and a half months since Schalke secured promotion and the 2. Bundesliga title. Miron Muslic expects Sunday’s opener in Augsburg to represent another step up for both the team and the club. “The demands are greater across the board and we’ll need to step up technically, tactically and mentally,” he said. “We’re new to this league, but we’re also Schalke 04, with more than 220,000 members behind us and a stadium that is always sold out. That will give us a boost, and we’re ready to put everything into the next ten months to establish ourselves in the Bundesliga.”

Schalke begin their Bundesliga campaign at FC Augsburg, a club that embodies the continuity and stability Muslic wants Schalke to build towards. “They’ve been an established Bundesliga club since 2011. That’s 15 years of continuity and stability at the club, and they clearly do a lot of things right.” Muslic also believes head coach Manuel Baum played a major part in FCA’s improvement last season, when they recovered from a difficult start to finish ninth. “Augsburg’s improvement has a lot to do with Manuel Baum and the work he’s done with the team. They finished ninth last season and had the eighth-best home record in the league. But I believe we can get something there.”

Captain Kenan Karaman remains unavailable

Captain Kenan Karaman will again be unavailable, having also missed Monday evening’s (24/8) 5-2 extra-time victory away to fourth-tier Hallescher FC in the DFB-Pokal. The attacker has yet to return to training following the hip injury he suffered in the friendly against Atalanta at the start of August. The rest of the squad are fit and available, including Robin Gosens and Edin Džeko, who ended up playing 60 minutes rather than the planned 30 in Halle. “They’re another step closer to being fully up to speed,” stated Muslic.

The 43-year-old also believes his side are tactically ready for the Bundesliga. “We’ve given ourselves the ability to play in different ways. In the first half of last season, we were dominant without the ball, then we became dominant in possession on the way to promotion,” explained Muslic. “Now we’ll need to strike the right balance between the two, but the team are completely comfortable doing that.”