Timo Becker: A lot of trust in one another

“We want to put our opponents under pressure as early as we can so that they cannot even get near our goal. I like that a lot as a defender,” explained Schalke’s new number 5. “We did this really well in the first half. I can’t remember them having a clear-cut chance at all.” The lack of a Panathinaikos threat across the 90 minutes was also down to the way the Schalke players got stuck in and fought for every ball.

Becker played alongside Felipe Sanchez and Nikola Katic in a back-three in Schwaz: “I could sense that we all have a lot of trust in one another. We played at a high intensity and were loud.” Becker is actually sharing a room with Katic for this training camp, which has helped their chemistry on the pitch having only met a few days ago. “We get on really well both on and off the pitch. Having spoken to one another a lot over the past few days, we both know how the other one operates in games.”

The former Kiel man didn’t just have praise for Katic: “We’ve got some really talented defenders in our squad, who we need to give a chance to develop. Our job as experienced players is to be there for those guys and help them.”

Becker also stressed that he feels the brand of football head coach Miron Muslic wants to play is a good match for Schalke. “If we can put our opponents under pressure and force them into mistakes by pressing them high up the pitch, both our fans and the players will enjoy that. Everyone in the squad is giving 110%, and that’s what our game is based on,” he said. “Winning possession back doesn’t help you much though if you don’t have anyone that can do anything with the ball at their feet. Thankfully we have players in our squad that know what they are doing. I think we put together some good attacks.”