Schalke 04 manager Domenico Tedesco believes his team lacked the cutting edge during the recent Revierderby against Borussia Dortmund. Schalke had come into the game with a 19-point gap over the runaway leaders and they could not prevent the deficit from increasing after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of their cross-town rivals.
Speaking after the game, Tedesco highlighted that Dortmund were the better team during the game and his side should have defended much better before the goals conceded in either half, he said: “Well done to Dortmund. We started the game well enough and had some control – but then we were suddenly behind. We should have defended both of their goals much better. We had more possession in the first half and had a decent pass completion rate. Our biggest problem at the moment is our lack of cutting edge. We need to be more dangerous, our crosses aren’t good enough as they just aren’t finding anybody in the box.”
“Schalke excelled during the previous campaign “ where they managed to seal a long-awaited return to the Champions League. However, the current season has been far from fruitful for the Bundesliga outfit, who are presently in the lower “half of the standings “ with a 11-point gap to the top-four positions already.
Meanwhile, they have performed much better when it comes to the Champions League campaign and they have managed to progress to the round of 16 with a game. Nonetheless, they need to improve on their performances significantly during the forthcoming months, if they are to enhance their prospects of progressing beyond opening knockout round for the first time since 2011. Back then, Schalke had beaten the likes of Valencia and Inter Milan en route to the semi-final phase where they suffered a heavy 6-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Manchester United.