Schalke vs. Borussia Dortmund: A combined Revierderby XI
Whenever Borussia Dortmund and Schalke meet in the Revierderby, passions run high on and off the pitch. But what if the lines were blurred and Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland joined Amine Harit and Jean-Clair Todibo to make a mouthwatering combined XI?
bundesliga.com imagines what a Ruhr Valley line-up would look like…
Goalkeeper
Markus Schubert (Schalke)
When Schubert arrived from Dynamo Dresden last summer, he knew he might be replacing Alexander Nübel at some stage. The announcement of Nübel's move to Bayern Munich next summer has accelerated the process significantly.
When Nübel was dismissed on Matchday 15, Schubert came off the bench to keep a clean sheet on his top-flight debut and he went unbeaten in his first four Bundesliga appearances, including another clean sheet against Borussia Mönchengladbach, before the Matchday 19 mauling at Bayern.
A knee injury saw him replaced by Nübel, but with the Bayern-bound 'keeper having slipped up in recent league outings, Schalke's derby destiny is in the capable hands of Schubert.
Watch: The first Revierderby of 2019/20
Defenders
Right-back
Jonjoe Kenny (Schalke)
Jonjoe Kenny has quite literally hit the ground running at Schalke. His tireless displays charging up and down the right wing since joining on loan from Everton over the summer have not only won over a set of fans that appreciates grafting more than most, but have also had a significant impact on the team’s results. The Englishman has missed just two of the Royal Blues’ Bundesliga games this term, starting every match he has featured in. And the fact he has won 48 per cent of his aerial duels, despite being just 5’9”, is testament both to his athleticism and fearlessness going into tackles. At the other end of the pitch he has contributed one goal and two assists to help Schalke's push for a top-four finish.
Centre-backs
Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund)
The 31-year-old is the elder statesman of this defensive line, offering experience, composure and, crucially, a winning mentality. Hummels has five Bundesliga titles to his name, as well as two DFB Cups and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The white-hot atmosphere of the Revierderby will not faze Hummels, who has won 11 of his 22 Bundesliga matches against Schalke – including going unbeaten in his last 10 – while also drawing six. He is also tough to beat in the tackle, winning 64 per cent of all his duels, while his unerring 90 per cent pass completion makes him the ideal man to turn defence into attack.
Jean-Clair Todibo (Schalke)
The on-loan Barcelona youngster has been eased into Bundesliga life by Wagner, but the derby could be the moment where he shows the qualities that convinced the Catalan giants to sign him. The French centre-back came off the bench to replace the injured Ozan Kabak in the Matchday 24 loss to Cologne, the first time Todibo had tasted defeat in his short top-flight career in Germany.
Alongside Matija Nastasic in the Royal Blues' rearguard, Todibo's physical and football qualities make him a complimentary partner to his Serbian teammate. Wagner will hope that having trained alongside Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann at the Camp Nou, Todibo will have learned a trick or two to help him keep the Dortmund front line in check.
Left-back
Achraf Hakimi (Borussia Dortmund)
Some players just love to be involved in the game, and Achraf Hakimi is certainly one of them. Combine that with his startling ability when on the ball, and you have a prototype modern-day full-back. Saying he has a one-track mind would be doing the 21-year-old Moroccan full-back an injustice, but he does make fabulous use of the ball: 10 league assists, as well as two goals, is testament to that. He likes nothing more than darting down the touchline with one of his league-leading 804 sprints - a massive 108 more than second-placed Sancho - during which he often breaks 21.5 mph, but he has also won more duels than any other Dortmund player making him a defender who can do a job at both ends of the pitch.
Midfielders
Holding midfielders
Suat Serdar (Schalke)
An all-conquering midfielder, much in the ilk of the man he has replaced in the Schalke engine room – Bayern Munich's Leon Goretzka – Suat Serdar is strong and robust in the tackle and then quick – both in mind and physique – to move the ball on with arrowing precision. Serdar's lung-busting, league-leading leg-work, means his starting position is usually more nominal than it is actual, however, and this just makes him even harder for opponents to pick up as he roams between a No.6 and a No10 position to devastating effect.
Axel Witsel (Borussia Dortmund)
Having the vision and anticipation to pick out a teammate in a dangerous position is an art which Witsel has whittled down to a tee. The Belgian midfielder shares the league's leading pass completion ratio with Nico Elvedi, but the Borussia Mönchengladbach centre-back has the ball in a less frenzied part of the pitch than Witsel. Add in four league goals and as many assists...did anyone say 'linchpin'?
Attacking midfielders
Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)
One of the continent's leading assist providers last season, with one more than Barcelona's Lionel Messi and just one fewer than Real Madrid's Eden Hazard, Sancho is already proving that was not just a one-season wonder. Only Thomas Müller has teed up more goals in the Bundesliga this season, but the Bayern man has scored just five; Sancho has struck 14 times. Only Bayern's metronomically merciless Robert Lewandowski has been involved in more league goals in 2019/20, which says it all, doesn't it?
Watch: A tactical analysis of Dortmund's deadly attack
Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund)
Only Sancho and Hakimi have registered more Bundesliga sprints in the Dortmund squad than Reus, who - at the age of 30 - remains one of the league's most committed and effective performers. Eleven goals and five assists in 18 starts this season is warning enough to Schalke that the Germany international has not lost his game-turning abilities. In any case, they should know all about him having watched Reus notch four goals and five assists against them.
Amine Harit (Schalke)
Spectacular at winning the ball back - he comes out on top in more than 50 per cent of his duels - the Bundesliga's Rookie of the Year for 2018 is back to his fearsome best under the tutelage of David Wagner. With six goals this season, Harit is looking at his best-ever Bundesliga return, and he earned his place in Schalke folklore with a strike in THAT 4-4 derby draw in 2017. The Morocco international entered the fray on the right in that game, but he has largely been deployed on the left of Wagner’s forward line, albeit given the freedom to roam all across the pitch.
Watch: Erling Haaland named Player of the Month for January
Forward
Erling Haaland (Dortmund)
Schalke would be well advised to speak to Freiburg and Leverkusen: they boast the only defences to have kept the rampaging Norwegian at bay in the Bundesliga to date. The sensational hat-trick he struck coming off the bench against Augsburg on his debut was far from out of the ordinary for the teenager who has rewritten the history books again and again following his January move from RB Salzburg. BVB legend Lothar Emmerich holds the record with 10 Revierderby goals and is the only man to net a hat-trick in the 'mother of all derbies'. No-one would bet against Haaland improving those marks too.
