Schalke 04 vs. RB Leipzig preview: Can Schalke steal a point?
An improved Leipzig team under Marco Rose travel to Schalke on Tuesday night in what could be another blow to the Royal Blues' hopes of climbing out from the depths of the relegation zone.
| Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Schalke 04
In their return to league play over the weekend, Schalke still couldn't find a way to put the ball into the back of the net. The 3-0 loss to Frankfurt was expected, but is yet another blow to the hopes of supporters in the fight to stay alive for another season.
New cheap signings are coming thick and fast as winger Tim Skarke was just signed on loan from Union Berlin. There is a lengthy injury list for Thomas Reis to deal with while several key starters can't be called upon quite yet.
Reis shared that, "I'm pleased to have a busier training ground. Kral has been able to train. I hope he won't suffer any setbacks and we can continue to work him back to full fitness. Drexler and Kaminski have also completed full training."
Team News
Sepp van den Berg, Rodrigo Zalazar, Alex Kral, Sebastian Polter, Thomas Ouwejan, Justin Heekeren and newcomer Niklas Tauer will not suit up.
RB Leipzig
The Red Bull club put together a decent performance in a draw against Bayern to reopen the Bundesliga campaign on Friday night. Now only a point away from claiming the second place spot in league play, Leipzig have pretty much recovered from another set of early season woes.
Former Dortmund man Marco Rose is still tinkering with his first 11, as David Raum and Timo Werner have some work to do to reclaim their starting spots. Everything's going to plan at the moment with a team that are undefeated in their last nine Bundesliga contests dating back to September.
Rose commented, "Our last training session before the game is later today. We'll then decide if we'll rotate the team. It's likely that we'll go with a similar XI again. - We missed Werner's pace in the first half against Bayern. He got 25 more minutes under his belt and we can now think about using him for longer."
Team News
Captain Peter Gulacsi and Christopher Nkunku are the only two clear absentees on Tuesday.