Loris Karius

Mark, this is a game that could have been a slightly higher number, I think.

Again, if it weren't for the good work of Loris Karius in net, he has the highest number of saves in the Bundesliga this season, which I'm sure will come as no shock to you.

I can't remember the number now off the top of my head.

I'm sure I wrote it down in my notes somewhere.

That chance was about as close to a sure thing as you'll get.

Karius stopped it.

Fair play to him.

But let's be honest with ourselves too.

On Saturday, the bench made a real difference.

Rydell Baku came on and won all five of his ground duels.

Dermies came on and forced Karius into the save of the night.

Fresh legs mattered.

Schalke had their sort of first really worrying result for me against Mainz the week before, and yet both sides... really did nothing through the game so I was starting to get concerned about Schalke following the defeat to Mainz and following the sort of lifeless draw with Köln and of course this game in which they have lost to Sveitabundsliga Dinamo Dresden is not going to help my feelings towards them at all.

This was a very low quality game to be honest and there were few good chances for either side which is understandable for Dinamo Dresden and absolutely unacceptable for Schalke but Dresden did take advantage of two opportunities and as much as I love him, Loris Karius really was the reason why Schalke conceded those goals.

I was going to say the reason why Schalke lost this game but that would be incredibly harsh because you know he can't put the ball in the net for the strikers.

who did absolutely nothing in this match.

But he has been so brilliant this season.

He was...

the reason Kaiserslautern won against Nuremberg last week and he was the reason that Kaiserslautern won in this game in the DFB Pakal against Hanover obviously that's a bit disrespectful to their strikers because they did score two goals kind of like the reverse of what happened with Loris Karius at Schalke in the game against Nürburgring not everything can be pinned on the goalkeeper but yeah what a sensational performance from Julian Kroll and Kaj Slouton going forward were able to take advantage of the fantastic performance of their shot stopper The goals from Kai Slaughton coming from Milos Lukovic a really impressive finish sort of across his body from outside the box and then the other goal a header from Ivan Petain and oh boy did he need that on his return from a what 10 month injury his last game was in January in a him to come back from that and score on his return absolutely fantastic for him you could see the emotions within well him and within his teammates as well so yeah a very good win for kaiserslautern really helped by their goalkeeper who continues to be absolutely fantastic of all of the games that hanover have had this is by far the least concerning but obviously it does continue a poor start for sandro wagner and it's not like the hanover fans were ever on board with his appointment in the first place so concerns are only going to increase obviously the hanover board will be more steadfast in their support because they were the ones who hired him but if results don't turn around performances have turned around in well this game and only this game but results need to turn around now as well because Hanover are genuinely looking down the barrel of relegation at this point level on points with bottom of the league Darmstadt and Given what happened to Fortuna Dusseldorf last year, I'm sure that's going to be even more on the minds of Hanover fans, the chance that they could actually be relegated to the Dritter's Liga, having looked like promotion hopefuls at the beginning of this campaign.

They did once win the DFB Pakal as a fighter Bundesliga side back in like 1992.

It's hilarious.

Frank says, Pender's doing a Karius.

Oh, I tell you what.

I said on yesterday's show, didn't I? I said this, I really like that Pender's.

So, not a mug team.

Hey, before we leave the Bundesliga, let me give a tip of the hat to Loris Karius.

So, him and Schalke lost at home this weekend to Mainz, but Karius is absolutely outstanding.

He's probably... certainly the best performance he's given in the Bundesliga this season might be the best performance he's ever given in the Bundesliga he was brilliant even though they lost and was included in kickers team of the week which is a lovely moment for him I'm sure given the many peaks and troughs of his career but he really was excellent

And then against Schalke, they had all the ball with Schalke just having 17 players behind.

It was like watching... two Jose Mourinho's as manager with an assistant manager of Jose Mourinho plus Loris Karius was in goal and we all know that's very difficult to get past so that one ended up nil-nil after I think it was 82 or 83 percent possession something like that if I remember so yeah they dropped points and but that kind of thing I think is very much an outlier they

didn't have Kane or Elise starting against Schalke either

okay

rhythm of the game, creating space through intelligent movement across the wide channels and pressing Schalke high up the pitch.

The decisive breakthrough arrived in the 24th minute following a rapid transition sequence, as defender Anthony Cocci picked out Filip Tietze inside the 18-yard box, allowing the striker to turn and slot a precise finish past Loris Karius.

Schalke attempted to formulate an immediate response through counterattacks down the flanks, but Mainz goalkeeper Alexander Schwulow stood firm against his former club, making key saves before halftime to protect his side's narrow advantage going into the interval.

Schalke introduced attacking modifications off the bench in the second half, throwing forward options like Hwang Hee-chun and Junior Adamu into the fray in pursuit of a late equalizer.

'Cause they'd obviously signed a new goalkeeper as well.

They signed Karius, yeah.

Karius, yeah.

But, but, but at the same time, Danny Ward went on loan-

Yeah