I was always saying that Neuer won't go to Bayern. He is already playing twenty years for Schalke and if he leaves Schalke he wont stay in the Bundesliga. If Neuer leaves, Schalke would have to get a replacement for him... maybe Baumann or Sippel.
Selling Rakitic wasn't that bad it seems. He had a half year of contract and wanted to much money. I saw nearly all Schalke games this season and he doesn't play good if the team doesn't play good. He needs players who have a good technique to play with and well, we only have Raul/Jurado who got that good technique. It was a good deal as he never settled and would have leaved Schalke anyway in the summer.
I really liked Jermaine Jones last year. He is one of those players always fighting and really hard working to get the ball back, but his performance this year was weak. He lost balls, he wasn't able to play easy passes, slided close beside it and didn't get the lost balls back, which caused some goals for the other team as Metzelder wasn't playing that good he is playing now. Annan is way better in my opinion. He is able to start a counter/an attack and his defending skills are pretty good like you could see versus Robben.
Charisteas is a hard one. He was training with the team to stay fit and Magath said he wont offer him a contracted, because he just trained with the team. FM said that he offered him a contract, because he is strong in the air and that is what we are missing. I think Huntelaar is pretty strong in the air and Raul can score with headers, too (like versus Bayern). Metzelder and especially Höwedes, who scored many goals last season, are always dangerous at corners. (Maybe he just wanted a translator for Papa...
)
I can think of two reasons for signing Karimi:
1. Selling more jerseys in Middle East
or
2. as a backup, which he should be capable to do.
Nearly all balls are bridging the midfield.. it was okay in the first half versus Bayern, but it started again in the second. This high balls to Raul/Huntelaar just don't work as they dont really have support there. The only players supporting them are Jurado/Farfan, but thats not enough versus good defences. Here is someone missing who quickly can change the sides or play a deathly pass.
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