The career that Henning Matriciani made over the course of the previous season at FC Schalke 04 made American dishwashers look pathetic. They may have made it from the kitchen to the millionaire’s villa, but what does that mean compared to Matriciani’s incredible rise from physiotherapist in Lippstadt to cult star at Schalke and German international? The fact that this was the U-21 selection team and that a player revered as a “star” in Gelsenkirchen does not necessarily have to be a gifted footballer does not have any significant bearing on the matter.
Matriciani, 23, was one of the discoveries of the season not only as a curiosity in the rank of a new Yves Eigenrauch, but also as an increasingly useful defender, and after relegation everyone was happy that he extended his contract until 2026 in the summer. Coach Thomas Reis praised: “With his outstanding attitude, versatility and speed, we will have a lot of fun with him.”
On Sunday afternoon, Matriciani was once again the quickest to intercept an attack from Karlsruher SC. In an exemplary manner, he slid into Fabian Schleusener’s low pass – and directed it straight into his own goal to make it 3-0. After that, coach Karel Geraerts later said, the game was “dead”. However, there was no need to accuse Matriciani: Schalke’s attempt to catch up had already shown little prospect of being realized.
The new board once worked for years alongside the chairman of the supervisory board
Matriciani’s personal fate represents the wrong path on which Schalke lost itself. He is no longer a cult star, but a substitute and “problem case” (Ruhr Nachrichten). Last year he grew enthusiastically into a team that fought in vain, but steadfastly and unitedly against relegation. Now he is part of a team that has been largely rebuilt, does not function as an organism and is affected by general insecurity, which is affecting Matriciani’s performance.
Schalke 04 recently produced some headlines off the pitch that challenged the grim humor of their long-suffering supporters. For example, the fact that the supervisory board has hired a new CEO who worked for years alongside supervisory board chairman Axel Hefer at the tourism company Trivago can actually just be a joke to give the media the opportunity to make Amigo accusations, right ? Maybe elsewhere, not at Schalke. The choice of Matthias Tillmann, 39, was the result of a “finding process with external support,” the club explained, which does not make the process seem any less strange for the time being.
The former investment banker Tillmann starts his job as chief marketer at the beginning of the year, until then there is still enough time for more bad news. The latest news was that the second sleeve advertising partner had already filed for bankruptcy. This is obviously not entirely true, as the affected company Hülsta desperately asserts, but it is probably not completely wrong either. The club has not commented on whether payments will continue. Rather, interviewees point out that sport is still the decisive topic at the weekend.
Open detailed view
One of many problem areas: the Schalke midfield around Lino Tempelmann (left).
(Foto: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
However, instead of the hoped-for improvement with the new coach, there was a further deterioration due to the 3-0 defeat at KSC. Relegation place 16 is home in the table for Erste, and the relegation battle has been declared a new obligation. Coach Geraerts admitted that he doesn’t tend to shout at his players, but this time he did it when the score was 0-2 at halftime. The same deficits existed in a more severe form than during the time of the dismissed coach Thomas Reis and his interim successor Matthias Kreutzer. They can be named succinctly without using technical terms: Defensively, the team is chronically unstable, and in the forward game there is no dynamism and no ideas. Geraerts also emphasized that the analysis at the break was “very simple”. They didn’t win any duels, lacked intensity and didn’t run enough. “I don’t need any stat sheets for that – I saw it live on the field.” The Belgian football teacher didn’t put any flowers around his discussions.
The third complete restructuring of the squad within three seasons has obviously failed. In the promotion year 22/23, a sustainable structure was quickly formed with players like Ko Itakura, Victor Palsson, Rodrigo Salazar, Simon Terodde and Marius Bülter. In the second half of last season, Reis was able to rely on an axis with Moritz Jenz (now VfL Wolfsburg), Maya Yoshida (Los Angeles), Tom Krauß (Mainz 05) and Alex Kral (Union Berlin); Salazar (Sporting Braga) and especially Bülter (now TSG Hoffenheim) set offensive accents.
When sports director Peter Knäbel announced the strategy in the summer of loaning fewer players and retaining more professionals long-term in order to gain substance, he received a lot of applause. Knäbel is now considered a discontinued model: the new midfield with permanent employees Paul Seguin, Ron Schallenberg and Lino Tempelmann is an even bigger problem area than the defense. Only 17-year-old Assan Ouedraogo from our own offspring stood out. Comparisons with Julian Draxler immediately followed, and people were even more disappointed when it was said last week that a sale to RB Leipzig was imminent and Schalke would have to settle for a transfer fee of seven million euros. But you may still need this supposedly small amount of money urgently.
