Week 19 - Match preview

Bochum not a crunch game, says Magath

With near neighbours VfL Bochum next up on Saturday (1530 CET), the Royal Blues do not have far to travel for their first Bundesliga away game of 2010. The distance between the two cities is just 13.7 kilometres as the crow flies.

In the league table the two Ruhr clubs are twelve places apart. Nevertheless, Felix Magath does not feel this makes his side favourites to win the game. "Bochum will do everything in their power to beat us at the third time of asking", said the Schalke boss, whose team have already got the better of their opponents twice this season, winning both the reverse fixture and a second-round DFB Cup tie by three goals to nil.

Magath knows his side face a different task this time, however. "There've been quite a few changes in Bochum since our last meeting", he explained. "In Heiko Herrlich they have a new coach at the helm who has changed the way they play. He also seems to be popular with the players."

Yet Magath still hopes, of course, that Bochum will be second-best again on Saturday. "To all intents and purposes Schalke have been very successful at picking up points in Bochum in the past", he said. "But when it's come to the crunch, things have never really worked out. That's why I'm glad this fixture has come around so early. It's not a crunch game after all."

The Schalke boss is expecting a better performance from this team than the one that gave them a narrow 1-0 home victory over Nürnberg last week. "We may have taken all three points, and that's our prime aim in Bochum, too", he said. "But what would really please me would be a game that we control and don't allow our opponents any goalscoring opportunities. We don't need to show that Manuel Neuer is our best player yet again, do we?"

On the contrary, Magath wants his attacking players to emerge as the main protagonists. "We have to create chances of our own through good football and hard work", he said. "And then we have to take them, of course." The Schalke boss is expecting to face an attack-minded Bochum side who will look to get forward instead of just waiting for an opportunity to counter. "That will give us the space we need to play our game", he concluded.