Marco Rose on his own future, the golden boot and the starting XI ahead of Schalke game

One final time at the Red Bull Arena this season for our final Bundesliga fixture of 2022/23!

RBL host FC Schalke 04 on Saturday (15:30 CEST) in our final league match of the season.

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Ahead of the final training session, head coach Marco Rose answered questions from the media as usual.

What are the latest squad updates going into the final home game of the season? What are his thoughts on the race for the golden boot? And what are his expectations for the fixture against Schalke 04? 

Team news

• With the exception of captain Peter Gulacsi, all players have taken part in team training in the build-up to the Schalke game, meaning head coach Marco Rose has an entire squad from which to choose his starting XI.
   
• Timo Wernerovercame an infection and has returned to team training, meaning he is in contention to feature against Schalke.
   
• Xaver Schlager is getting back to full fitness after recovering from a syndesmosis injury and has already made a couple of appearances off the bench in recent weeks. According to Marco Rose, the Austrian could be ready to play a larger part in this weekend’s match.
   

The rest of the team news including updates on Peter Gulacsi can be found below.
 

MARCO ROSE on …

… this week’s training

• “It’s been a normal week of training, we started on Tuesday, had a very intense session on Wednesday, and then took it a bit easier yesterday. 

  The mood in the camp is good, we’ve worked hard. We all want to win tomorrow’s game and then we’ve got a big game the week after. Therefore, it’s important that we don’t shut down or take our foot off the gas, and instead keep our momentum going into next week.”

   

… the potential starting XI to face Schalke 04

• “Of course, we’ll put a strong side out tomorrow. But we may also include some of the lads who didn’t start against Bayern. We’ve got a lot of players available to us at the moment and they are all good enough to start. 

  We’re going to try and maintain our rhythm but also give one or two some minutes.”
   

MARCO ROSE on …

… upcoming opponents Schalke 04

• “Schalke have had to be on it the entire second half of the season. They’re well and truly in survival mode, they play with aggression and poweful, and they’ve got a good tempo about them.

  They also get plenty into the box and cross well, and with Kral and Krauß in the middle, they contest the first and second balls well. They’ve definitely come on well as a team in the second half of the season, Reisi (Thomas Reis) has done a really good job. 

  Schalke’s objective for this game is clear and we won’t be surprised that they get right down to it from kick off, that’s for sure.”

   

… how to approach the game against S04

• “I am convinced that if you do something half-heartedly, it comes back to bite you. It won’t be surprising to anyone that Schalke will come here and give it everything, and so we need to be ready for that. 

  Tomorrow’s game is by no means a dead rubber, we need to maintain our good form and we want to enjoy the winning feeling. I expect us to be 100% on it and to try hard to win our final home game of the season in front of our fans.“

   

… the Bundesliga title race

• “We all know Bayern as the flagship team of the Bundesliga. But there are always seasons in which not everything goes to plan, it’s human nature. That’s when you need to try and be there, that’s what Dortmund try to do, what we try to do. 

  We’ve got one more league match and then the DFB-Pokal final. We’re not able to win the league this season, and come the end of the 34th matchday, we’ll have a worthy champion. We’re finishing third and that’s what we deserve.”
   

MARCO ROSE on …

… Christo Nkunku and the golden boot

• “Christo always wants to score goals, that’s what all attackers want. But you could see in Munich that the lads take responsibility in order to ensure the success of the team. 

  Christo scored the first penalty, and then Szobo took the second one, even if Christo would have quite liked another opportunity to score again. That shows that Christo puts the team above everything, including individual success.“

… Dominik Szoboszlai

• “Dominik Szoboszlai is tactically disciplined without the ball, prepared to run lots and with intensity, has lots of quality on the ball and in one-on-one situations. Szobo gets lots of assists as well as goals. He’s an all-rounder, very confident and therefore has been an important player for us this season.” 

   

… his own time in Leipzig

• “It feels good to be here, I’m at home. Leipzig is my city, that’s what I’ve always said. My contract runs until next year, so I’ll definitely still be here. If the team wants to start planning for the long term, then I’m ready for such a conversation. 

  Nevertheless, I’m aware that I’m a top-level coach. There were times when different questions were asked of me, for example after the Man City, Bochum and Mainz games. 

  I said at the time that things were moving too fast for me, in both directions. We’ve achieved our goal, and now we can talk about contract extensions. It felt good and the right thing to do when we were going through the difficult phase and it still feels good and the right thing to do now.“