Stevens wants more consistency

Schalke coach Huub Stevens has demanded more consistency from his side ahead of their clash against Freiburg on Saturday.

After a promising start to the season, Schalke are winless in their past five outings in all competitions.

The poor run has seen them slip to fifth in the Bundesliga and Stevens said playing well in patches would not be good enough.

“In the last few weeks, I haven’t always seen it (our qualities),” Stevens said.

“I’ve only seen strong performances occasionally. That’s not enough, and we know that, but the players also want to turn that around. That is our aim and everybody wants to help achieve that.

“When I see and feel how everybody is training or tries to train, then I can say, yes, they want to improve and that is very important.”

They meet a Freiburg side in contrasting form, with just one loss in their previous eight matches.

That defeat came to runaway league leaders Bayern Munich and Stevens is wary of the ‘organised’ Freiburg side.

“They’re a good team. They play in an organised manner, with a lot of movement, perform well with the ball and create quick switches in their play,” Stevens said.

“On Saturday, we are going to be up against a very difficult opponent. But we hope that our qualities will shine through.”