Caretaker no more: Schalke’s Roberto Di Matteo ready to get stern against Chelsea

Di Matteo is Schalke’s 11th managerial appointment in the just over ten years since Jupp Heynckes stood down there and he is confident heading into Champions League bout with his former Chelsea side, writes Ian Hawkey.

Schalke 04' s coach Roberto di Matteo arrives for his team's German first division Bundesliga soccer match against Wolfsburg in Gelsenkirchen November 22, 2014. He will lead his team against Chelsea iShow more

When Roberto Di Matteo joined Schalke last month, he might have noticed a few similarities with the previous club he managed.

A similar shade of blue for the jerseys, and a rather long list of recent head coaches. Indeed, when he sat down on his new office swivel-chair, he might have felt the weird sensation it was still turning. Schalke, like Chelsea, tend to tip men out of that seat with alarming regularity.

Di Matteo is Schalke’s 11th managerial appointment in the just over ten years since Jupp Heynckes stood down there.

Two and half years ago, he was the eighth different man to be made Chelsea manager out of the 10 who have held the job since Claudio Ranieri became the first casualty, in 2004, of owner Roman Abramovich’s restless pursuit of the perfect formula for making the London club the pre-eminent force in European football.

Di Matteo stands out from the rest for one main achievement: he is the only one to have guided Chelsea to a triumph in the Uefa Champions League, the competition where his Schalke host Chelsea on Tuesday night.

The former Italy international, now 44, lasted eight months at Stamford Bridge. His return to a senior coaching job was expected; that it would be in Germany was not.

Di Matteo had been linked to positions in Italy, and in England, where he made his name as a manager with MK Dons and West Bromwich Albion.

But he speaks fluent German – he grew up in Switzerland – and has a resume which will always impress because it includes the most glittering prize in the club game.

Di Matteo has already challenged some perceptions Germans had of him. Remembering him mainly from the final of the 2012 Champions League, when he organised a limited Chelsea team missing, with suspension and injury, several key players, to defy Heynckes’s Bayern Munich, in their own Allianz Arena, and grind out a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes and win on penalties, there was an idea Di Matteo was a cagey, cautious, defensive coach.

Those may be his priority instincts, but the Schalke of the last six weeks have produced some hectic, end-to-end scorelines, full of goals.

In Europe, their options for progressing to the next phase are in the balance after two wild matches against Sporting Portugal: a 4-3 win secured by a late penalty, a 4-2 defeat in the Lisbon match.

They currently trail group leaders Chelsea by three points, and sit one point above third-placed Sporting.

In the Bundesliga, more see-saw scores: The weekend’s 3-2 win against Wolfsburg extended Di Matteo’s 100 per cent record at home. But he has lost all his away games.

Di Matteo talks of raising the fitness levels of his squad – his predecessor Jens Keller, had been criticised for not working some players sufficiently – and targets a top-four finish.

He seems to have coaxed raised performances from certain individuals.

The Cameron striker Eric Choupo-Moting, signed from Mainz last summer, enjoys the confidence of the new coach more than he did Keller’s and his two goals against Wolfsburg as well as his sangfroid in insisting on taking, then converting, the late spot-kick to beat Sporting suggest he is responding well to that faith.

Di Matteo sprang a surprise with a back-three formation at the weekend, and it worked, Schalke racing to 3-0 up against a strong Wolfsburg in 25 minutes.

Typically, he is guarded about his formation and plans to take on his former club. “We have plenty of different systems we can use,” said Choupo-Moting.

Di Matteo has cast off the image of caretaker quickly, but Tuesday night’s match will be the sternest yet of his tests with Schalke.

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