David Wagner: Hungry and eager for the fifth consecutive win

The coach emphasises that his team is „hungry“ and „eager“ to build on their success story, but it doesn’t play a huge role in his game plan that his team currently occupy fourth place and the opponents 17th. „Just because we’ve won four games now, it doesn’t change a thing. It’s not about who the favourite is or who the opponent is. It’s all about us,“ explained the 47-year-old.

At the same time Wagner knows that Cologne had some problems last time out. „We noticed that,“ he said, but also emphasises that Cologne have had a difficult start to the season. The newly promoted side won in Freiburg – in what was the only defeat so far this season for the Breisgauer.

Schalke’s head coach prefers to talk about his team, who have made an excellent start to the season. „The first few weeks and months have been good. We have started to do a few new things and the boys have accepted them so positively. But these are just first steps – nothing more,“ he said putting the brakes on the euphoria.

All players fit, Nübel questionable

Wagner has an entirely fit squad at his disposal which, to him, is just as pleasing as grabbing 13 points from the previous five games. „It may be that we start with the same XI as in Leipzig, but there might be some changes,“ said the coach. Then he added: „We’re fortunate that all players are fit at the moment and we can bring on a lot of quality from the bench.“

It was a deliberate decision that some players trained lightly during the week. Wagner: „That was due to the intensity of the past few weeks. We didn’t want to take any risks, so we eased the workload on one or two players. “

Only Alexander Nübel is a doubt for the game as the goalkeeper has been plagued with adductor problems. We will decide after the final training session whether he can play against Cologne. „If Alex is fully fit, he will play,“ said Wagner. „And if not, it’ll be Markus Schubert. He has been training excellently for weeks now so if it does come to that, then I have no qualms about it at all.“