If the goals have dried up for Schalke, for Mark Uth, this is a drought. Despite scoring the winning penalty in a shootout win over Cologne, the Germany striker has gone nearly 17 hours without scoring for his new club.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/K. Hessland-Wissel
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Forget the blood, the screams and the ghosts. It's a terrifying number that will haunt Mark Uth on Halloween evening. The former Hoffenheim hit man has now gone 999 minutes without landing a proper punch for the Royal Blues.
The striker prevented another Schalke emergency when he netted the winner in a 6-5 shootout victory over Cologne (1-1 after extra time), but the fact Uth stepped up seventh speaks volumes about his lack of confidence.
Schalke have not exactly been free-scoring themselves this season — Nabil Bentaleb's injury time equalizer from the spot was their first goal for nearly 400 minutes — but it's fair to say this isn't what the Royal Blues expected when they signed the Cologne-born forward on a free.
Slow start in Gelsenkirchen
By this stage last season, Uth had scored eight. By the time Schalke announced his future arrival in January of this year, four more had arrived. He'd finish the campaign with 17 goals, one every 155 minutes.
Uth was 10 games into his current run when he was called up for the Germany squad for the first time, winning a first cap in the3-0 Nations League defeat to the Netherlands. He didn't score.
Cologne took the lead against Schalke but couldn't hold onImage: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
There are mitigating factors. While he had five shots in 120 minutes against second tier Cologne, none of them were in clear-cut positions, while he has also been utilized in a much deeper role by Domenico Tedesco at times this season.
He's also gone from Julian Nagelsmann, a coach happy to outscore the opposition, to Domenico Tedesco, one whose conservatism is starting to catch up with him.
Not the only guilty party
In contrast to Hoffenheim last term, where Serge Gnabry, Kerem Demirbay and Andrej Kramaric could all ease the weight on Uth's shoulders, Schalke's lack of quality in attacking areas is becoming more apparent by the match.
Tedesco's men have scored 10 in their 14 games this term. None of their striking options has ever got more than 15 in a league season at any level and their ponderous attacks frequently run out of steam in the final third, with Daniel Caligiuri the only player regularly capable of offering a spark of production.
But Uth isn't the only one of Schalke's summer signings who has failed to find his form. His former Hoffenheim teammate Sebastian Rudy, signed to add class and nous to the midfield, has had difficulties nailing down a first team spot in a side threatened by relegation while fellow central midfielders Omar Mascarell and Suat Serdar have so far proved significant downgrades on Leon Goretzka and Max Meyer.
Tedesco must now hope that Uth's rediscovery of the ball hitting the net sparks a fire in the man most likely to get him goals.
Bundesliga: Leverkusen smash Bremen for six, Dortmund can only draw
Leverkusen stunned Bremen on Sunday night. Bayern got back to winning ways in the Bundesliga, even if only just. Düsseldorf remain a team in trouble, as do Hannover, while Hertha surprised against a big team once again.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/M. Hangst
Mainz 1-2 Bayern Munich
Though it wasn't pretty, the defending Bundesliga champions got the three points they needed in Mainz. Leon Goretzka gave Bayern the halftime lead after Thiago's goal was disallowed by VAR. Jean-Paul Boetius scored the equalizer shortly after the break, his first ever Bundesliga goal, but Thiago restored Bayern's league just after the hour mark to seal the win.
Image: Reuters/R. Orlowski
Werder Bremen 2-6 Leverkusen
Under pressure, Heiko Herrlich delivered in spectacular fashion as his side hammered one of the most in-form teams in the Bundesliga. Karim Bellarabi inspired the visitors to a three-goal lead at the break, but Werder Bremen got back to within one thanks to Claudio Pizarro and the help of VAR. But the comeback was cancelled as Kai Havertz scored and Bremen collapsed.
Image: Imago/Nordphoto
RB Leipzig 0-0 Schalke
It's becoming harder to see what the plan is from Schalke's perspective, as Domenico Tedesco's side endured their second bore draw of the week. Breel Embolo missed a glorious chance to put the visitors ahead, but sent his free header wide. There were few real chances for either side on a wet Sunday afternoon in Leipzig, leaving the score a fair reflection of the game.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Woitas
Nuremberg 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
French forward Sebastian Haller rescued a late point for Eintracht Frankfurt on a difficult afternoon in Nuremberg. The Club's impressive home form this season looked set to continued after Adam Zrelak gave them the lead with just 12 minutes remaining, but Haller scrambled the ball over the line from Danny da Costa's cross in injury time to equalize for the Eagles.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/A. Grimm
Hoffenheim 4-0 Stuttgart
After scoring three in the Champions League on Tuesday, Hoffenheim bagged four more goals against Stuttgart on Saturday. Stuttgart played most of the game with 10-men after Emiliano Insua was sent off. Hoffenheim exploded in the second half, scoring four goals in 12 minutes, with Ishak Belfodil (middle) scoring two of them.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/M. Hangst
Hannover 1-2 Augsburg
Rani Khedira scored his second ever Bundesliga goal to give Augsburg a 1-0 first half lead. Alfred Finnbogason doubled the visitors' advantage from the spot after Genki Haraguchi handled a ball in the penalty area. Ihlas Bebou put Hannover back in the game, but the hosts couldn't do enough to avoid their fifth defeat of the season.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
Dusseldorf 0-3 Wolfsburg
Fortuna's misfortune continued on Saturday as they suffered their fifth consecutive defeat. Referee Daniel Schlager pointed to the spot after a free kick from William struck Rouwen Henning's arm. Wout Weghorst converted the penalty, his third goal in his last four games. Josip Brekalo and Daniel Ginczek added to Wolfsburg's lead in the second half.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Becker
Dortmund 2-2 Hertha Berlin
A brace from Jadon Sancho wasn't enough for Dortmund, as Salomon Kalou got a brace of his own to give Hertha a big draw away from home. Sancho's goals came from great team moves, but Dortmund paid the price for not taking more of their chances. Hertha proved efficient at taking theirs, Kalou scored their only chance in the first half and cooly converted a stoppage-time penalty to seal a point.
Image: Imago/D. Kirchner
Freiburg 2-1 Gladbach
Gladbach really do hate playing in Freiburg. They last won in Freiburg in the Bundesliga back in 2002 and despite being the in-form team 16 years later, they couldn't change that stat. After 13 seconds, Gladbach conceded a penalty (see above) which Nils Petersen scored. Thorgan Hazard scored from the spot at the other end, but Luca Waldschmidt struck a deserved winner in the second half.
