Schalke appeared to be in a position to take something from the Bundesliga match after Yuito Suzuki was sent off for a second bookable offence. With the score at 1-1, the visitors had an opportunity to take control against a side playing with a numerical disadvantage.
Instead, SC Freiburg found a late winner through Keisuke Goto in the 85th minute, leaving Schalke empty-handed.
Muslić did not attempt to shift the blame onto his players after the final whistle. The Schalke coach said he had changed the team’s structure in an attempt to secure victory, but conceded that his decision had backfired.
“We had the feeling that we had everything under control. We also felt that there was more possible for us today. Then I changed the structure to try to make it 2-1,” he explained.
“That did not do the team any good. I made a mistake with that. The team could not deal with it.”
The changes came after Schalke had drawn level through Adrian Gantenbein in the 30th minute, cancelling out Maximilian Eggestein’s early opener for Freiburg. Suzuki’s dismissal in the second half appeared to offer the visitors a significant advantage.
However, Schalke struggled to turn that numerical superiority into a winning performance. Muslić made five substitutions as he attempted to find a way through, but Goto’s late header settled the contest in Freiburg’s favour.
The result was a setback for newly promoted Schalke, who had taken five points from their opening five matches and sat 13th in the table. Their start had offered encouragement, but the defeat highlighted the fine margins involved in returning to the Bundesliga.
Muslić’s willingness to acknowledge his own tactical error will not change the outcome, but his assessment was clear: the team had been competitive before his intervention altered the balance of the game.
Schalke must now respond in their next fixture, with the coach and players needing to turn the disappointment into a more consistent run of results.