Karel Geraerts: I wanted to see how the team would fare with this system

“The final scoreline perhaps doesn’t reflect the game itself, it was a real battle,” summed up the new Schalke head coach. “I’m really satisfied with the result, as well as with my team’s performance for large parts of the game. I told the team on my first day that I want to see a group ready to overcome challenges and desperate to always win.”

Back-three tested out

This ability to deal with challenges and setbacks was tested early on against Heracles. “None of our players had their head down after their early goal. Instead, they wanted the ball, carried on playing and quickly found an equaliser,” explained the 41-year-old. Despite leading 2-1 at the break, he wasn’t entirely happy: “There were a few things we could have done better, but that’s totally normal.”

This was also the case after the break: “We will use the next week to fine tune a few things in training.” Geraerts and his coaching team will now analyse this game and look at areas that need to be improved.

“I want to have a real impact on the team and get my style of play across to them,” said the Belgian, who made a tactical change for the friendly at the Parkstadion. “The fact that we played with a back-three does not automatically mean that we will always use one in the future,” he stated. “I decided to go with this formation for this game to see how the team would fare with it. We don’t have any more opportunities to test it out before the next game against Karlsruher SC.” The trip to play KSC next Sunday (22/10, 13:30 CEST) will be Geraerts’ first competitive game in charge.

Positive first impression

“The players have been very eager to learn over my first few days here. I immediately got the sense that they are hungry for success after the recent results. I really enjoyed my first training session – I couldn’t wait to get out there with the lads,” said the coach.

The former Belgium international added that all the players in the squad would get a chance to impress him in training. “Every player starts at square one, so it was good that I was able to give lots of them minutes against Heracles Almelo,” he said. The coach wants his team to play at a high intensity and to look to get the ball forward. “We can’t be naïve though. We have to be clever if we want to get good results,” he demanded.