Reversing the meltdown
Schalke are a team in trouble. They have been and up and down from the Bundesliga, and they are in a financial mess after Covid. We need to rebuild this club.
- Currently in the Bundesliga 2 looking to get back to the top league after relegation.
- The club is in a financial mess after covid and with failure after failure it is compounding the problems.
This rebuild guide is following Schalke 04 on FM24. Schalke have had a hard time of it over the last few years, mainly stemming from financial problems after Covid. They were a European entry each year and have a say in the Bundesliga title. They now reside in the second division looking to bounce back for the second time in three years.
This is a challenge like no other, we have to improve the performance of the team under strict financial constraints. This club is on the brink of collapse and desperately needs a change in fortune. Let’s rebuild Schalke today!
Schalke Objectives
The first thing we need to do is pay attention to is the board and supporter objectives. Ignoring these will make your life rather difficult while trying to rebuild Schalke on FM24. We will use these objectives to dictate the culture we create around the club.
So looking at the board objectives we have a few interesting points. The board would like to sign players in Germany or who are German. This is interesting as it could start a national team rebuild for Schalke. It is also cheaper to sign players in your own country as you do not have work permits or language classes and the costs attached.
The next objective is that they would like to develop youth through the club’s facilities. This is great for a team that is looking to become sustainable. So what we do here is recruit a great head of youth development and coaches that have high working with youngsters and motivation. We can go the extra mile by getting scouts that are great at judging potential.
Next are the supporter objectives, and they are demanding. They want to be promoted straight away, so the pressure is on to perform. The other objective is to develop the youth, this synergises with the board objectives which we are planning for.
They also want us to be competitive with Dortmund if we meet them. We aren’t ready for that currently, so let’s hope we do not meet them anytime soon.
Schalke first 11
Our next step is to understand who our key players are and who our squad players are. With this Schalke rebuild on FM24 we need to play to our strengths and base the system around our top players. The strategy is very strength based and we need to lean into what makes this squad great.
The way in which we decide who is a key player and who is a squad player is the assistant reports. We do not have much data at this point, so this is our best measure. We will push the standard as the average in the league is 2.5 stars, the squad players will be 3 stars and anyone above is a key player.
So the key players tell us a lot, we have a range of positions but are doubled up at left back and right mid. Ignoring that, we can see a picture forming with the formation. It would appear that a 433 DM wide will fit this team and create a structure. We need to be attacking as we need to go to war with the league for the automatic promotion spot.
Moving on to the squad players, we can easily fill the front line, midfield and defence. We are definitely on the way to developing a system around the 433. While we do have an AMC, he is one of a kind and also 33 meaning he is on the chopping block.
Schalke Tactics
What we need to do now is take all the assumptions above and create a tactic around it to rebuild Schalke on FM24. Our culture is important and our tactic is a product of the culture we build. We want a successful team and be able to push forward with it.
The first thing we always look at is the way in which we score goals. The forward will be dropping deep and playing our inside forwards in, they will score the goals. By dropping deep the target man is taking a defender with him to play the wide players in. Our target man needs to be winning his headers and duels.
The midfield is our standard set up of one attacking role, one support role and a defensive role. This is a simple case of winning possession, recycling the ball through the water carrier and attacking midfielder supporting attacks.
Defensively I have gone with two ball playing defenders in order to keep the possession. The wing backs will push forward to take up the positions that are vacated by the inside forwards. This will keep the pressure on the opponents back line, and that is where the sweeper comes in. The keeper will mop up any forced passes over the top.
Get started and rebuild Schalke on FM24
The Schalke rebuild challenge on FM24 is going to be just that, a challenge. There is no infinite resources and a lot of pressure from the fans to get the club promoted. The real job is the rebuild, and continues next season when you do go up.
The strength of the team is that the have a lot of key players and should be able to outclass the opposition in this division. The good news is that a lot of them play in attacking positions. The weakness of the team is off the field, with the financial crisis at the club you going to receive less transfer values and small budgets.
The opportunity here is to start the team fresh and rise a phoenix from the ashes. Strict policies and change management through out the club is going to be the start. The threat to the team is that if you do not come through on the performance objectives the club could collapse. It does not get more dramatic than that.
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