Football Season Guide

Bundesliga II

Germany

Bundesliga II

2021/2022

Schalke

In

Marius Bulter (mid) Union Berlin; Victor Palsson (mid) Darmstadt; Reinhold Ranftl (mid) LASK; Marcin Kaminski (def) Stuttgart; Danny Latza (mid) FSV Mainz; Simon Terodde (att) Hamburger SV; Thomas Ouwejan (def) AZ Alkmaar - on loan; Marvin Pieringer (att) SC Freiburg - on loan; Rabbi Matondo (mid) Stoke City - end of loan; Ozan Kabak (def) Liverpool - end of loan; Yaroslav Mikhailov (mid) Zenit - on loan; Dries Wouters (mid) KRC Genk;

Out

Weston McKennie (mid) Juventus; Suat Serdar (r) (mid) Hertha Berlin; Ahmed Kutucu (att) Basaksehir; Bernard Tekpetey (mid) Ludogorets; Jonas Carls (def) SC Paderborn; Mark Uth (r) (att) Koln; Sebastian Rudy (mid) Hoffenheim; Nabil Bentaleb (sp) (mid) released; Bastian Oczipka (sp) (def) released; Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (sp) (att) retired; Benjamin Stambouli (r) (mid) released; Steven Skrzybski (sp) (mid) Holstein Kiel; Alessandro Schopf (sp) (mid) released; Shkodran Mustafi (r) (def) released; Sead Kolasinac (r) (def) Arsenal - end of loan; Goncalo Paciencia (sp) (att) Eintracht Frankfurt - end of loan; Frederik Ronnow (sp) (gk) - Eintracht Frankfurt - end of loan; Killian Ludewig (sp) (def) RB Salzburg - end of loan; William (sp) (def) Wolfsburg - end of loan; Markus Schubert (gk) Vitesse; Benito Raman (att) RSC Anderlecht;

Schalke endured a miserable campaign last season, finishing rock bottom of the table and dropping down to the second-tier. The rebuild mission has begun over the close season with coach Grammozis busy in the transfer market, shifting out the vast majority of deadwood and bringing in experienced players such as Latza, Palsson and Kaminski. Second top scorer in the division from last season, Simon Terodde, has also joined from Hamburger and should provide the firepower lacking from last season. Grammozis wasn’t afraid to give the talented youngsters in his squad a chance towards the end of the last campaign and will be expected to do the same this term. Flick, Aydin, Thiaw and Hoppe are among the players that could shine. Despite the many comings and goings, the fragile state of the club is still a concern. Schalke have won just 3 of their last 50 league matches and a poor start could leave them vulnerable once more.

Target

Promotion. Schalke will be looking to get back up at the first time of asking and have the squad to be challenging for the title, having said that, other teams in the division are likely to raise their game against them, so they will need to be up for the fight.