Groß insists Schalke won't hold back in Pokal: "These are the matches for the business cards"
Schalke trainer Christian Groß faces a important choices as he builds his starting XI for today's DFL Pokal match against VfL Wolfsburg. The 66-year-old head coach must also take a crucial weekend clash with Leipzig into account.
Groß emphasized the importance of the match, but remained noncommittal about which players he might deploy.
The first question lobbed at Christian Groß during a recent club presser, unsurprisingly, concerned newly re-acquired veteran striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar. The 37-year-old "Hunter" was finally able to celebrate his return to the club with a ten-minute-relief appearance on Saturday.
Groß emphasized the importance of the match, but remained noncommittal about which players he might deploy.
Groß reported that the Dutch legend's calf blister appears to be fully healed, but did not sound as if he would hand the former club legend a start.
"We have to be very clever and intelligent with the use of Klaas-Jan," Groß told reporters, "A partial deployment or whether he'll be fully spared for the match on Saturday remains open."
Groß labelled Huntelaar's status as "questionable" and also indicated that Suat Serdar would be unlikely to partake on Tuesday evening. Matija Nastastic, Steven Skrzybski, and Can Bozdogan remain hurt.
The Königsblauen must wait until Saturday to use Ozan Kabak's replacement as Shkodran Mustafi must first quarantine. Alessandro Schöpf and Benito Raman, both returning from injury, are saiid to be available.
Though the relegation threat must, of course, take priority for a club during a year in which additional Pokal fixtures won't yield the additional revenue of gate-receipts, Groß took care to emphasize that the coming match remained important to him and his team.
"We won't be sparing any energy for this challenge," Groß told the assembled reporters on Monday, "These are the matches for the business cards; ones that ensure that there's not merely a mobile number on them at the end of the career."
Schalke have won more Pokal fixtures in the last three months than they have league fixtures in over a year. Manuel Baum attained the sole victory of his tenure with a 4-1 defeat of Schweinfurt in the delayed first round encounter in November. Huub Stevens guided the club past SSV Ulm in the second round just before Christmas.