Schalke started to lose again after improving their performance. Alex King has been one of the worst on the pitch for the last two games

It seemed that Schalke, even with the help of Czech midfielder Alex Kral, was looking to improve their performance and save the German league. That has started to slip away from them recently.

The Westphalian club’s fate seemed to be decided and after an incredibly poor autumn performance, they will return to the second league after a year.

Schalke 04 certainly didn’t have an ideal autumn. After their promotion to the German elite, the fans had high expectations and none of them would have imagined in their worst dreams that the club would be in last place in the table with only nine points.

It wasn’t easy for the Czech footballer either. Alex Král, after an unsuccessful loan spell at West Ham, hoped to get his career back on track in Germany.

He secured his place in the line-up, but overall he was a misery for the whole club. Schalke were clear candidates for relegation back to the second tier. As the new year struck and the spring league phase began, it looked like Schalke might be able to reverse the unfavorable fate after all.

From the end of January to mid-March, they hadn’t lost eight consecutive games and at one point came within a god’s difference of non-relegation positions.

Credit for this also goes to the Czech international, who returned to the starting line-up and started to collect words of praise from his club’s fans.

The last two games, however, will not be ones King will want to remember. First Schalke fell 0:3 at home to Leverkusen and last time at Hoffenheim 0:2. On both occasions, King was one of the worst on the pitch and even scored an own goal in the last game.

According to the well-known Whoscored website, against Leverkusen King received a rating of 5.8, making him the second worst player on the pitch. Against Hoffenheim, he even received a rating of 5.1.

Schalke are currently still last in the table, five points behind the non-relegation places. Looking back at the autumn season, we can still talk about success, because the Westphalian side still has a realistic chance of salvation.

For that, however, they will need a significant improvement in performance and that too from Alex Kral, who continues to hold his own in the starting line-up.

Source: Livesport, Whoscored