First vice-champion Schalke must befriend the relegation battle

Schalke's season started catastrophic. There were five defeats at the start of the season, only five wins and 18 counters took them in the first round. Everything should get better in the new year. But instead of hoping to intervene in the race for Europe, the Schalke are no longer far from the relegation battle.

Schalke's creative means in the game with the ball are not enough to be variable against defensive opponents to determine the games. With Nabil Bentaleb, the dribble strong Amine Harit and national player Sebastian Rudy Schalke actually has creative potential. But they show it too rarely.

That Schalke does not work as a team, it also has coach Domenico Tedesco his share. He still has not found a central axis and no game system for his team. Despite injuries from Guido Burgstaller, Benjamin Stambouli or Breel Embolo, Schalke's squad has enough footballing skills to score goals against a club like Mainz. Mainz had finally conceded eleven goals in three games. Schalke played against the table neighbors despite 60% possession barely out chances and lost 0: 3.

Dusseldorf, Bremen and Leipzig are the next opponents in the league. The danger of sliding further down is not to be dismissed after the non-performance against Mainz. Especially since the discussions about Tedesco and the soon to be ex-manager Christian Heidel keep the focus on the essential: on performance on the pitch.

2nd tree expect hard days in Augsburg

Augsburg coach Manuel Baum seems to have a big fan: FCA manager Stefan Reuter put him after the third defeat in a row from a job guarantee. A real surprise given the recent performances of FC Augsburg. The 1: 5 in Freiburg was the low point of a low-points not poor back round of the Augsburg. They lost five of six games in 2019, with a goal difference of 7:16.

The recipe against Augsburg is simple: the opponent only has to give them the ball. The Swabians are struggling in the game, the midfield has no ideas how they can set the attackers in scene. And the defense? Begin to wobble at the smallest enemy counterattack. The Freiburg knew how they could exploit the weaknesses of the Augsburg: they ate against the ball, sprinting into the interfaces, countered with force and finesse. To make matters worse, the FC Augsburg Patzer makes up for mistakes; as on Saturday, when Rani Khedira before the 0: 1 crossed the ball.

Baum does not manage to present a Plan B this season. Even the new assistant coach Jens Lehmann did not provide the hoped-for performance change. Media such as the "Augsburger Allgemeine" already suspected in Lehmann's commitment, he stands as a head coach on call ready. After the desperate performance against Freiburg this scenario could become reality.

3. Borussia Mönchengladbach needs a break

Three weeks ago - after the 2-0 at Schalke - Borussia Mönchengladbach took second place between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, daring contemporaries dreamed of the championship. It was followed by a 0-3 at home against Hertha BSC, a 1-1 in Frankfurt and now the 0-3 against VfL Wolfsburg.

It is striking that important pillars of the first round, such as Alassane Pléa, Michael Lang or Tobias Strobl not come at the moment for the train. The negative run also coincides exactly with the injury of Jonas Hofmann, who he closed after 30 minutes against Hertha BSC - only at the second half against Wolfsburg he returned. And: key players such as Oscar Wendt or Matthias Ginter (only 20 or 29 percent won duels against Wolfsburg) play under form.

Gladbach seems overplayed. This is also reflected in the statistics: Thus, the Borussia has successively fewer and fewer duels to decide in the past three games: against Schalke there were still 57 percent won duels, against Hertha BSC 51, in Frankfurt 47 and against Wolfsburg now only 45 percent. It is also striking that Gladbach last ran less than the opponent. Against Wolfsburg, the difference was a whopping five kilometers. This is surprising in view of the fact that Gladbach in the first round still counted among the strongest running teams.

Gladbach could use a break now. Somehow inappropriate that on the matchday, of all things Bayern will be in the Borussia Park guest.