Benito Raman: Success with the team more important than personal goals

At the training camp in Fuente Álamo in Spain, the foundations for a successful Rückrunde were laid out, and now after their hard work, the team will be hoping to reap their rewards. “At the training camp we focused on things that we haven’t done so well on in the first half of the season,” explained Raman, who says that the goal for the second half of the season is to get the team to finish as high up the table as possible.  “That is much more important than my personal aims, like increasing the number of goals I want to score,” stressed the 25-year-old.

Respect for strong-in-possession Gladbach

Raman knows that a tough encounter awaits the Royal Blues on Friday. “Mönchengladbach were at the top of the table for a long time. We know they are very strong when they’re in possession. But we also know what we have to do to beat them,” says the striker, who has scored in six of the twelve games of the Hinründe and also in the 4-0 friendly win against Hamburger SV.

In Hamburg Schalke’s number nine also got to see new partner Michael Gregoritsch in action. “He is a very good player,” said Raman about the Austrian, who signed for Schalke in the first half of the season. “In his first game against St. Truiden he had to get his bearings, but in the second game he was fine. He’s a player who doesn’t need a lot of time to get settled in.”

Even Raman needed some settling-in time at the start of the season, when he wasn’t able to regularly perform to his potential. “I’d just transferred to a bigger club, so I felt that there was a lot of pressure on me,” said the forward, who admits that he put too much of the pressure on himself. “I needed a bit more time at the beginning, but I think I’ve been playing much better in the last few weeks.”