Schalke 04 before promotion: The change under coach Muslic

An one evening in the last week of January, it was already after ten o’clock, Frank Baumann’s phone rang. Well, the trainer, so late? Yes, it was Miron Muslic who called to convey the following message to Schalke’s sports director: “Frank, from tomorrow we are switching to a back four.” Baumann’s answer: “Miron, you’ll do it.”

Laconic dialogues like this have repeatedly stood at the beginning of important events in human history. Just like almost 30 years ago, when Rudi Assauer sat in Huub Stevens’ living room in Oirsbeek, Netherlands, and described to the landlord what he could expect as the new Schalke coach – if he accepted the offer for the job. “I’m not guaranteeing you anything, not even a good start,” said Assauer. The answer to this was not given by Stevens, but by his inner voice, the coach quoted the words in his memoirs: “My gut feeling said: You have the courage, this is your chance. So do it!” This is how the collaboration between Assauer and Stevens began, which was to last almost six years – which, by Schalke standards, represents a diamond marriage.

The dialogue between Frank Baumann, 50, and Miron Muslic, 43, could also go down in Schalke’s treasure trove of quotes as a milestone in a wonderful story. The story comes from first hand, Muslic himself reported on the conversation on Thursday for the occasion, because the reorganization of the defensive line was accompanied by a reform of the entire playing system. The coach thereby reinvented his team for the second time in the season, and did so with ever-increasing success: in the first half he had trained them to seal the defense so tightly that no drop of water could get through, which, after 18 match days, resulted in an interim balance in the spirit of Helenio Herrera, the inventor of the catenaccio: Schalke led the second division table with a goal difference of 22:10. But you couldn’t continue like that if you wanted to maintain your position; the team had to learn to shape the game themselves. The word had also gotten around in the club. “We were first and had fewer goals than number 18 – that says it all,” says Youri Mulder, the sports director, summarizing the situation in the winter. The case was clear when Edin Dzeko suddenly appeared at the door. The management acted and got a few new players, the coach developed a different game idea.

In 2022, spectators stormed onto the field without considering their own health, and there were a number of seriously injured people

Three months later, the structurally changed team has increased the production of goals and points so confidently that the club management has had a serious problem since the 3-2 win at SC Paderborn last weekend: How can chaos be prevented if the team wins the home game against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday evening and completes its return to the first division? During the promotion in 2022, spectators stormed onto the pitch without considering their own health, and there were a number of seriously injured people. For days now, security measures have been working overtime to keep the fans’ enthusiasm under control, but perhaps, even probably, it will be enough for Miron Muslic to have spoken his word: the pitch belongs to the players, he said, and storming the pitch is “an absolute no-go” for real Schalke players.

One could easily imagine the proud, incredibly bearded trainer wearing the regalia of a Roman commander in Caesar’s time. One word from him is enough and the legion marches, something similar is said to have happened in Gelsenkirchen when he took charge of a team that had to fight against relegation to the third league the previous season. Witnesses to the training camp in Austria last summer reported scenes in which players showed up a little late for appointments – and didn’t risk doing so a second time, even though Muslic neither raised his voice nor had anyone thrown into the dungeon. He doesn’t need to be authoritarian, they say, it’s enough that he radiates authority.

This is also noticeable for those who are not part of the employees in the zip code – the “professional performance center”: On the one hand, there is the “Bosnian warmth” that Muslic claims for itself. On the other hand, there is a man who is driven by unconditional ambition. The latter makes some Royal Blues officials doubt that a coaching relationship with a diamond perspective will emerge again. It’s not about the work the coach has done – it’s been first class so far – but about his intentions. Muslic wants to aim high – probably higher than the financially needy newcomer Schalke can carry him in the next few years.

“Schalke brings in a completely unknown coach,” had Bild was both shocked and appropriately titled after the Austrian from Bosnia was put into office by the new sports boss Frank Baumann. Muslic had previously been relegated to the English third division with Plymouth Argyle. Of course there were doubts as to whether it could work with him, but expectations were not high anyway after the miserable previous year with several dismissals of head coaches whose names have almost been forgotten. Captain Kenan Karaman, 32, had expressly forgone a specific tip for the season last summer, as he said on Thursday after training: “The only thing that was important to me was that a season like the last one didn’t happen again. That was my personal goal.” “You couldn’t have imagined how things have developed since then,” he says.

In 2022, Karaman came to the first division club in the Ruhr area from Besiktas Istanbul on a free transfer, and apart from him there weren’t many Schalke players who were excited about it. “I was just happy that I could play for such a big club,” he says, “there was great euphoria.” But then for three years things turned out completely differently “than we had hoped”. While Karaman, 32, gained profile and reputation at Schalke, making a career as a crowd favorite and a top player in the second division, the club continued to deteriorate both in terms of sport and morale.

The winter signings Moussa Ndiyaye, Adil Aouchiche and Dejan Ljubicic immediately became regular players

Since last summer, it suddenly looks as if the Schalke team will succeed in everything with the calm powerhouse Baumann at the helm and the doer Muslic in the coaching cabin. Recently they were even said to be able to save the Baltic Sea whale Timmy. First, however, there was one miracle after another to marvel at in our own house: for example, that at the turn of the year the great Edin Dzeko wanted entry into the club and didn’t even want any money for it. Or that the winter signings Moussa Ndiyaye, Adil Aouchiche and Dejan Ljubicic, who were hired at the last minute, immediately became regular players and raised the level of play in an almost grotesque way.

Not to forget that the club recently won cases before the DFB sports court that, according to the lawyers, were impossible to win – almost like the legendary Chuck Norris, who, among other things, has already counted to infinity twice. The new main sponsor also falls into the category that doesn’t exist: he neither just pays with small change nor does he have a questionable origin. Instead, he comes from Beckum in Westphalia, is a family business and industrial logistics specialist with roots in mining and yet, as we hear, a pretty generous donor.

Or this detail: When Edin Dzeko and Nikola Katic injured their shoulder and knee respectively during World Cup qualifying with Bosnia in March, not only Italy but also Schalke 04 seemed to have lost everything. The most likely end to the season for the goalscorer and the defense chief – fans with fears of loss were already complaining about a typical Schalke drama. But the team simply continued to win without the two of them, and now this: Those 800 fans who were at the training ground on Thursday morning spotted a very lively goalscorer Dzeko in the middle of the action, while Katic was doing his first running exercises.

Sure, everyone wants to be there on Saturday when the big moment strikes. But what happens if things go wrong against Düsseldorf? For once, not even the many long-suffering professional pessimists among the followers have any doubts about this. Kenan Karaman promises that nothing will go wrong with promotion: “We have three match points – we will get this thing over the line.”