He was Jurgen Klopp’s right-hand man in more ways than one.
David Wagner, the man who miraculously kept Huddersfield in the Premier League longer than they reasonably should have been, was Klopp’s best man at his wedding and learned at the Liverpool boss’s knee.
Now he’s at Schalke, performing another supporting act in a very different way. This time round he’s supporting a whole club and lifting them onwards and upwards.
Twelve months ago last week, the Gelsenkirchen club mathematically sealed their survival from relegation to the second-tier with just three games to go, completing a season that had brought countless poor results and a venture towards obscurity. A runners-up finish in 2019 felt so far away.
Yet the appointment of former Huddersfield Town in the summer of 2019 has brought about a positive step forward for the club and while pre-lockdown results saw Schalke drift away from the dense Bundesliga title race taking place this term, they look like a completely new team under his stewardship.
And as all eyes look towards Schalke’s Revierderby clash with Borussia Dortmund on Saturday afternoon, it gives Wagner’s side the opportunity to showcase how much they have risen from the depths of despair.
Wagner’s arrival was a well-matched union between two parties that had endured difficult hardship over the past 12 months. The American-German coach had seen his mini-empire at Huddersfield fall apart through their Premier League relegation last season after transforming the Terriers from Championship nobodies to top-flight outfits.
In Gelsenkirchen, the close connection between the club and their current manager goes way beyond the two years Wagner spent as a Schalke player between 1995 and 1997. The 48-year-old’s high-pressing philosophy, coupled with a willingness to put faith in youth has proved to be the perfect tonic this term.
There has been no settling in period – Wagner’s ideological influence on the club began from the get-go. The most striking impact the American has made is the improvement of the players that were already at the club.
The players, who had limped to a 14th place finish in the previous season, are more flexible and adaptable this term, with Wagner trusting his players to rotate regularly between a 3-3-3-1 or a 4-2-3-1 tactical set-up.
Yet this season’s Schalke team are more about what they do off the ball rather than on it, as Wagner’s intense pressing style, which ironically stems from his time as the B team coach of Schalke’s fierce rivals Borussia Dortmund, acting as the feature most commonly associated with the current squad.
Only reigning champions Bayern Munich have made more sprints as a team this season than Schalke, while the Gelsenkirchen club rank in second place – behind the equally impressive Borussia Monchengladbach – when it comes to duels won over the course of the Bundesliga campaign.
But the fact that Schalke rank rather low when it comes to ‘total distance covered’ implies their press is more methodical and well-timed rather than just harassing their opposition at every opportunity.
Of course, this does not come as a surprise given Wagner’s close links with Klopp.
Yet while the press associated with Klopp’s Liverpool originates from the dymanic front three of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, Schalke’s vital pressing component lies in the midfield, which normally consists of young American prodigy Weston McKennie, captain Omar Mascarell and Turkish international Suat Serdar.
But the most pivotal figure in Schalke’s off-the-ball movement is attacking midfielder Amine Harit. The Moroccan man had two underwhelming seasons after joining the club from Nantes in 2017, but has moved to the next level under Wagner while scoring six goals this season.
The 23-year-old leads the way for the Gelsenkirchen side in terms of intensive runs (1,816), which is more than young English wonderkid Jadon Sancho (1,732) and Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry (1,556).
Ahead of the talented collection of midfielders are the forwards, who are normally Austrian duo Guido Bergstalle and Marco Gregoritsch, young academy product Ahmed Kutucu or Benito Raman.
The latter’s flexibility means he is often deployed on the wing, putting further emphasis on the Austrian pair and Kutucu – yet the trio share just four league goals between them all season.
That’s no accident or fault of theirs – with a major focus on both the high-press and turning over possession quickly to form attacks, strikers in a Wagner team are predominantly used as two more cogs in the pressing machine.
The manner in which the Schalke coach utilises his strikers is not too dissimilar from the way Wagner played during his playing days. A striker who scored relatively few goals in his career, Wagner is fully aware of how strikers do not need to be recognised through just their goal-scoring statistics.
Instead, it’s the hard-working midfielders who have taken on the mantle of being the goalscoring outlets in this Schalke side, with Serdar (7) and Harit (6) leading the club’s scoring charts in the 2019/20 league season.
In order to sustain this style of play, which is reliant on very active midfielders and strikers to compliment the resolute defenders at the base of the team including Salif Sane and Matija Nastasic, Wagner needed fresh and young legs in the transfer market to fulfill his philosophy.
Just like when he first showed up at Huddersfield in 2016, his knowledge of young players in the German market proved critical in the team’s success.
Smart acquisitions from fellow German domestic clubs such as Stuttgart defender Ozan Kabak, 19, and Fortuna Dusseldorf’s Raman, 24, for good-value prices demonstrates this, while Jean-Clair Todibo, 20, was brought in from Barcelona on loan.
Yet alongside the exciting youthful talent such as McKennie, Raman, Todibo and Harit, it’s two British players who make UK football fans sit up and notice Schalke the most.
On-loan Everton defender Jonjoe Kenny has barely had a look-in at the Toffees so far in his career, but the 23-year-old’s arrival in Gelsenkirchen has seen him make solid strides under Wagner in his debut season as a proper first-team regular.
Wagner’s use of attacking full-backs means Kenny has been given the chance to display his all-round talents. Forging a solid partnership with opposite full-back Bastian Oczipka, the Liverpool-born defender has helped to balance the Schalke side in crucial moments in the season.
Meanwhile, the stock of Welsh international winger Rabbi Matondo is developing slowly over in Germany, as the 19-year-old competes alongside England and Dortmund winger Sancho to be the brightest British attacking export in the Bundesliga.
Like Kenny, Matondo was born in Liverpool and is also currently in his first proper full season as a first-team regular, but he possesses the confidence, swagger and attacking flair to be one of Europe’s top talents.
After scoring in Schalke’s shock 3-1 at RB Leipzig in September, which signalled the beginning of bright things to come under Wagner, Matondo told the official Bundesliga website: ‘We’ve been working really hard. We press really well.
‘We scare any team. I don’t think any team would like to play against Schalke.’
Now the Bundesliga is back, they’re ready to start scaring teams once more.
SOURCES:- allfootballapp
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