Team won’t be derailed by defeat

Schalke’s sporting director did emphasise though that the loss wouldn’t derail the team. “We have to put it behind us and learn from the game so we can improve when we face Hannover,” said the 54-year-old. There were positives to take from the Leipzig clash. “In the first half hour, we didn’t give Leipzig a sniff,” remarked Schalke head coach, Domenico Tedesco. However, after Leipzig’s opener, the dynamics of the game changed. An unfortunate deflection saw Naby Keita’s strike find the net.

“At the break, we made changes and chased an equaliser,” said the head coach. The desired equaliser came soon after. Naldo headed home to mark his fourth of the season and his 43dr goal in the Bundesliga.

Naldo couldn’t celebrate his goal for long. “We just lost the ball too often in the middle of the park. That’s how we lost today,” he reflected. These mistakes allowed Werner and Bruma to punish Schalke and win the game for the hosts. “Domenico pointed out how Leipzig were allowing the centre backs to play the ball into the middle and it was there where they pressed hard and in numbers to win the ball. We wanted to avoid losing the ball in those areas,” said Christian Heidel. “The team couldn’t manage that today.”

It was a frustrating watch for the sporting director as the Royal Blues were unable to capitalise on their equaliser. “Unfortunately, the second goal took us by surprise and then suddenly it was 3-1. That made it incredibly hard to come back from. We can’t put ourselves in this position every week. All in all, we made too many mistakes,” said Heidel.

Domenico Tedesco knows what Schalke have to do next. “We have to learn from the came and analyse where we went wrong,” stated the coach. Naldo added: “The table is so tight. I still perceive us to be as good as the likes of Leipzig despite the result. We have to keep our heads up and going again versus Hannover to get those three points.