FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV

Hunter time? He likes to play vs. HSV

I think we have here a team who can be under the Top 4 in Bundesliga. Schalke managed the important 4th place last season and plays CL Quali against an team from Ukraine in some weeks. They must be aware that they have to start well and getting better in form form week to week if they want to reach the Group Stage from CL. So the start is very important in BL. If they play like in Cup against Nöttingen where almost all players take it to easy or maybe play a bit lethargic they have no chance. But Coach Keller said already that he does not want to see such a performance again. So if some players are not on the best level or weak at this time he has some more options as last season as they strength their squad from last season. Overall with Clemens from Köln, Szalai from Mainz who should help Huntelaar in scoring, Goretzka from Bochum and Santana from Dortmund. All these players are candidates for the starting lineup, so the pressure in training on a high level. The only imp. who left the club some days ago was Bastos who was not very lucky at Schalke and it was better for him to go. Starting lineup can be almost the same as last season, maybe Clemens on the wing can be a candidate to start, also Santana. Szalai made a good preparation and is an option if Keller counts on to strikers or maybe only on Huntelaar. We will see.

A lot of trouble again at Hamburg, they were very weak in pre matches and lost a lot of friendlies against lower division teams and so on. Sport Manager Kreuzer was often very angry about the players and how they react on the pitch and their body language was very awful. They talked a lot in Hamburg from EL and so on but if they continue like they did in friendlies they never reach this more they get in danger. Due to less money they have they could not sign huge or good players, they lost Son to Leverkusen who was important whit his fast actions. So they have with Zoua from Basel, Calhanoglu from KSC, Djourou who played last season for H96 but is injured now and Sobiech from Dortmund some new players. Bad result, mood not the best and a lot of trouble can make it more and more a very hard season for them. Some of the experts think already (like Franz Beckenbauer) Hamburg is a relegation candidate. Some more problems for Coach Fink because if his best scorer Rudnevs could not play due to illness he has a big problem in offensive.

Let's see who will be first off the mark here and which team can start well. Very important for both as all fans of them have a lot of expectation. Of course the home ground should help Schalke here and they have good fans who push them from beginning on and they were always able to score at home above all in their last two seasons they scored in all matches at home, only against Bayern München they were not able. I see Schalke as the better side and they should be the team here.