Schalke boss Thomas Reis admits 'only the fans' are Bundesliga worthy as relegation-threat looms

<p>Following Schalke for the last five years has certainly been an emotional rollercoaster.</p>

Just five years ago, the club finished second in the Bundesliga and progressed to the Champions League knockout stage a season later.

<p>The Royal Blues went on to hit major financial problems and were relegated to the second division back in 2020/21 following a disastrous campaign which saw them win just three of 34 league matches.</p>

The club was able to bounce straight back into the top tier having won 2. Bundesliga in dramatic fashion under caretaker boss Mike Buskens.

However, their time in the elite appears to be limited with the club currently bottom of the Bundesliga with just seven games remaining.

Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Hoffenheim was especially painful as Reis questioned the ambition of his players.

<p>Around 15,000 Schalke supporters made the 452-mile round trip to the Rhein-Neckar-Arena, only to watch their team suffer a successive league defeat.</p>

"When you talk about the fight against relegation, I've only saw one team that was invested in it and that was Hoffenheim," Reis told German broadcaster DAZN.

"The first half was not worthy of a relegation battle. We were far too well-behaved in the first half. Hoffenheim got two yellow cards. We got none. We don't want to encourage the lads to foul, but you have to present yourself much more in the duels."

"Apart from keeper Ralf Fährmann, no one really delivered today."

Schalke appeared to have turned the corner having gone on an eight-match unbeaten run.

However, the Royal Blues have since lost 3-0 to Bayer Leverkusen and 2-0 to Hoffenheim - results which currently leave the club bottom of the table and five points from safety.

"We weren't at the races in the first half and were far too passive. Only our fans were fit for the Bundesliga," Reis told the club website.

"We let Hoffenheim knock the ball about and they had a few decent chances. The first half wasn't good enough for a side fighting for survival. The opponents wanting to get stuck in more than us is something that I can't accept.

"You have to show a better mentality if the opponents have more quality and I didn't see that from my team in the first half. We tried all we could in the second half, but then came the penalty that had to be retaken.

"We had one or two chances to get back in the game, however over the whole 90 minutes we weren't good enough to get anything.

"Even though today's defeat hurts, we have to simply keep on going. We've got a really important game next on Friday and we really want to win it - and perhaps need to in order to stay alive. I'm confident that we will show a different side to ourselves at home."

Schalke return to action on Friday in a huge basement battle against 17th placed Hertha Berlin.

<p>The article <a href="https://www.planetsport.com/soccer/news/schalke-boss-thomas-reis-admits-fans-bundesliga-worthy-relegation-threat-looms">Schalke 04 boss Thomas Reis admits ‘only the fans’ are Bundesliga worthy as relegation-threat looms </a> appeared first on Planetsport.com.</p>