leaderless Königsblauen return

The Bundesliga returns to action this Friday after the international break with Königsblauen visit of Arminia Bielefeld.

For Schalke, their visit of die schwarz-weiß-blauen comes on the heels of letting go coach Fred Rutten, a few weeks after the unceremonious letting go of twenty-year man Andreas Müller. While the club will likely deny it, their dealing of the matter is the not-so well kept secret amongst coaching professionals. Oliver Kahn announced very publicly that he has "business affairs" tying him up through the balance of the year and Slaven Bilić's gig with Croatia and Rawbau has ruled him out. With die Königsblauen in eighth place and in-need of a powerful late season surge for the Europa League, they will be lead by the coaching collective of Fred Rutten's assistants Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck.

How Schalke handles this leaderless final two months is a matter that will be proved out in-time but it is quite obviously been mismanaged by the board. To effective rid your top two leaders, one part of the clubs fabric for the last two decades is lunacy at this time of year particularly given they didn't have anyone tied up for the position. For a team playing like a mid-table side since the start of the Rückrunde, there is absolutely no way these actions can be seen as "motivating" and whoever decided this was a course of action to take should find themselves in the unemployment line.

Injury reports to follow...