During their first 17 games of the Bundesliga season, Schalke shipped no fewer than 41 goals. An average of 2.4 per 90 minutes.
And, on January 24th, the bumbling Bundesliga giants hit a new low; The Miners tripping into a hole of their own making, hammered 6-1 by RB Leipzig at their Veltins Arena home. A result which appeared to make relegation back to the second tier something of an inevitability.
So the immediate difference Moritz Jenz has made since touching down on the banks of the Ruhr – in performance and belief – should not be underestimated. From an average of 2.4 goals conceded a game to none.
Schalke have not won a match since Jenz’s arrival, but neither have their lost one. Four consecutive 0-0 draws. Four consecutive clean sheets. A new Bundesliga record.
In the blink of an eye, Jenz – alongside veteran Maya Yoshida – has transformed the division’s most porous backline into it’s most watertight.
Moritz Jenz breaks Bundesliga record weeks after Celtic exit
“I think we are more stable with Moritz,” Yoshida tells Kicker; an understatement if there ever was one.
“I know how he wants to play, and vice versa. That brings us more peace, and makes it easier for me.”
According to BILD, Schalke will trigger the £3.5 million option-to-buy clause in Jenz’s contract if they avoid relegation. It is testament to the former Celtic loanee – who arrived from Lorient in January – that survival now feels like a genuine possibility; Koln, Wolfsburg, Borussia Monchengladbach and title dark horses Union Berlin all kept at arms’ length by a man who, while hardly the Bundesliga’s most glamorous signing, could prove to be it’s most transformative.
“If I could play for this club for many more years, that would be amazing for me,” explains Jenz; allowed to leave Celtic following the arrival of Yuki Kobayashi
“(The chance to earn a permanent move) is a huge motivation for me to make it. I really want it to work.”
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