Chapter 820: The Rest of the Pre-Season
After this, time passed quickly, and Higo himself didn't really notice at first. No, his focus was completely on what was in front of him, from every training session to the little conversation he would always have with the girls after that. As for anything else, while he would pay attention sometimes, the boy would forget about everything once the day was over.
In the end, August ran pretty quickly, with the schedule being quite tight for the team. Even though it was still a lockdown era, somehow, the association managed to lobby the government so that the competition could be allowed again, so the team had to prepare for the start of the Bundesliga season soon enough.
In doing so, the team arranged several friendly matches, which was quite helpful to assess the team's level.
Well, it was fortunate that they arranged that, because the first three games were enough to slap Frohling on the face. The man truly didn't know that the team had so many hidden dangers until they lost all three of those games, and to make it worse, those all came from teams from either the second or third division, the kind that they should never have lost a game against.
The first one was against VfL Osnabrück, a second division team. In this game, Frohling tried to use several approaches to find the most suitable one for the team, and yet, none of what he set up seemed to work.
From a formation with two tops, a thoughtful approach with two wingers holding the flanks, an imaginative plan with the attacking midfielder inserting himself into the penalty box, none of them managed to get Schalke a goal that they had been waiting for.
If anything, it was the opponent who struck in the 58th minute, as one good cross from the corner kick was enough to destroy their whole defense. In the end, Schalke lost 0-1 against the opponent, and the players sure had the worst time of their lives after that.
The next two games also didn't get better for them. If anything, their defense seemed to crumble under the pressure. Against SC Verl, a local team that was the opponent of their second team in the fourth division, they lost with the score of 4-5, and three days after that, KFC Uerdigen landed a decisive blow by beating them with the score of 1-3.
In total, they conceded nine goals in three games, which was definitely something to be ashamed of.
Honestly, it was fortunate that all the games were played behind closed doors, or the supporters would be furious when they saw their players were so lost in the middle of the pitch like that.
Higo himself was also helpless about this situation. He didn't play even a single game in that period, could only watch his teammates suffer from the sideline. It seemed that the coach wanted to test what would happen in the team's defense without Higo being there, and the result was way more disastrous than the man intended.
Still, during that process, Frohling managed to see the holes in his defense, and the man worked quickly to patch them all.
The first one he did was to recruit another center back, one that could give the reassurance that Ozan Kabak provided on the back. He couldn't always rely on Sead Kolasinac to do all the work, after all, and while Malik Thiaw and Timo Becker were decent, those two had their flaws, like being inexperienced or even too passive to the coach's liking.
In the end, the team decided to recruit back their former player, Benjamin Stambouli, who they had just sold last year to a Turkish team, Adana Demirspor. The French defender was still 30 years old, and he was a solid presence on the back as well. At least, this would be a good reinforcement for the team, allowing them to let out a sigh of relief.
Then, the striker that they hoped for also finally arrived. It was none other than Goncalo Paciencia, the Portuguese striker that they loaned from Eintracht Frankfurt, as the man finally agreed to join the team.
𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Those two additions to the team worked perfectly in the fourth pre-season game, which coincidentally was also Higo's debut after being sidelined for two months. This time, against SC Paderborn, they managed to get better by miles, destroying the opponent mercilessly with a 5-0 win.
In that game, Mark Uth managed to score a hat-trick, and two of the goals were assisted by Goncalo Paciencia. It seemed that they got along quite well, forming a connection right in their very first game together.
Meanwhile, on the back line, the duet of Sead Kolasinac and Benjamin Stambouli also managed to repel all of the opponent's incoming attacks. Honestly, it was a completely different matter than when Kolasinac played with Malik Thiaw.
While the younger Frenchman had a beastly defensive instinct, he was indeed inexperienced, sometimes needing guidance even in the middle of the game. However, Stambouli was an old player here, knowing what to do and what to expect from his teammates. That was why he and Kolasinac hit off quite well in just one game.
Hell, Higo was basically jobless in that game, only playing the role of a sweeper-keeper who was decent at distributing the ball.
In the end, the team left with Frohling having the biggest smile in a month, and honestly, this was a big relief to anyone else.
A happy coach was a happy team, after all.
It also helped that great news followed next, what with Morita and Oczipka finally being allowed to join the normal team training. Even though they still needed to recover their fitness, at least it was a great indication that they would be available soon enough.
Unfortunately, amidst all the great news like this, there would always be one piece of news that came out suddenly, destroying the joyful atmosphere in the team. This one came from the Bundesliga itself, as the schedule was finally coming out for the 2020-21 season. Once all the Schalke players saw this, they froze immediately at the team they had to face in the first week.
It was none other than the best team in the world right now, the one and only Bayern Munich.