Royal Blues aim to exploit Stuttgart uncertainty
"In recent years Schalke have often struggled to pick up points in Stuttgart", acknowledged manager Felix Magath ahead of this Saturday's Bundesliga clash (kick-off: 1530 CET). "It would be nice if that were to change this season."
It will be ten years to the day since the Royal Blues last won in the league in Stuttgart. On 17 October 1999 Niels Oude Kamphuis and Ebbe Sand were on target in a 2-0 victory. Since then the Royal Blues have largely drawn a blank. But that may be about to change. Having collected ten points from four away games so far, the Royal Blues travel to Stuttgart in confident mood.
The Swabians have picked up just eight points from their first eight matches and currently occupy 13th place in the Bundesliga table. "That shows that Stuttgart have a few problems at the moment", said the Schalke boss, who believes the sale of Mario Gomez to Bayern Munich is a major reason for this. "In Gomez they have lost a key player", he explained.
Stuttgart have attempted to compensate for the departure of the Germany striker not only by recruiting Pavel Pogrebnyak, but also by taking Alexander Hleb on loan from Barcelona. "He's a top-class attacking midfielder who is capable of deciding a game all on his own", said Magath, referring to the qualities of the former Arsenal man. "But having worked with him in the past I believe I know how to set my team up against him."
Despite these two new signings things are not going too smoothly in Stuttgart, though this comes as no surprise to Magath. "When Marcelinho left Wolfsburg a few seasons ago Zvjedzdan Misimovic slipped into his role and it took a while for the team to readjust. With Stuttgart going through a similar process it's a great opportunity for us." The Schalke boss is expecting two things to come out of the unrest in the Stuttgart camp. "On the one hand they will do everything they can to win again at home", he said. "On the other, however, there is no stability in the team yet. We have to try and exploit this uncertainty."
Magath was in charge of Stuttgart from 2001 to 2004 and definitely feels there are parallels between his job then and his current role at Schalke. In Stuttgart it was the first time that Magath had held the twin positions of coach and director of sport. "It was a difficult situation back then because we couldn't make any transfers and had to work with young players", he recalled. "That period produced a lot of players who they were able to sell on later."
