Rouven Schröder: Critically discuss problems while remaining calm

Rouven Schröder on…

…critically discussing our own performances:
We are ambitious and always want to be successful. We recently climbed up the table thanks to four straight wins, but we still saw negative things in parts on the pitch as well as the positives. We’re currently third with 22 points, a record which we definitely would have taken three months ago. We all want to be unhappy with defeats without starting to question everything. It’s important that we critically discuss problems, but remain calm and don’t let ourselves be dictated by a few negatives.

…the DFB-Pokal exit in Munich:
Our aim was to reach the next round, which is why we were really disappointed to lose that game. We started poorly and played into their hands in front of a raucous crowd. We deserved to go behind, but gave our absolute all, even when we had a man sent off. Reaching the next round would have been beneficial to us in both a sporting and a financial sense. We’ve come to terms with the match now. We stayed down south in order to have a short training camp, where we had lots of conversations. The idea that rotation was the reason for our loss, as often stated in the media, is incorrect for me. Other teams, for example, made lots more changes. We need to do our job as a team – and we made mistakes.

…recovering from the Heidenheim defeat:
We will lose games sometimes. After all, we have to work hard for everything. It’s important that we remain critical of one other so that we can get the best out of each other. We want to continue being ambitious, and get as many points as possible. The coach has once again stressed the importance of this to the team. Even though it was our third game in six days, we could definitely have played better and won in Heidenheim.

…the upcoming home game against Darmstadt:
I’m looking forward to a week of training which will see us deal with some tricky issues. Darmstadt are strong in attack. We’re excited to test ourselves against a team like that at a full VELTINS-Arena. We’ve learned the right lessons from the two defeats – we want to show that against Darmstadt and go into the international break on the back of some positivity.

…back-up players:
We always need to perform to our best because we’re not some all-star team that can just play everyone off the pitch. Our back-up players need to be pushing our first-choice ones so we can perform well as a team. There needs to be real competition for places. It’s important to keep the back-up players involved, to talk about their mistakes and get them ready for their chance.

…possible transfers in the winter:
We did our business in a way that would ensure we would have further opportunities to make more moves. The prize money from the DFB-Pokal would have provided us with some additional income, which we hadn’t included in our calculations at the start of the season. We will try to get things done right up until the end, however only if the whole package works. It’s no secret that we’re looking around for attackers. We do already have lots of quality in Simon Terodde, Marius Bülter, Marvin Pieringer and Darko Churlinov though.

…the atmosphere at the club after two defeats:
I think the atmosphere is really positive because I’ve got the feeling that the fans have a good understanding for the situation. They’re partly unhappy, but the away block was still really positive after the Heidenheim game. We will obviously accept the criticism after games that don’t go so well. Nevertheless, I have the feeling that the fans are still behind us and that they’re excited to push on the team again on Sunday. There will always be critics. Starting here at Schalke, you know that things won’t always go positively.  You simply then have to do things better. If you manage that, you get so much back and can earn the fans’ applause after the game. The fans can give you so much.