Schuster: Huntelaar Will Be The New Van Nistelrooy

It's crunch time for Real Madrid as they face Sevilla and Barcelona in games which could well determine whether or not German coach, Bernd Schuster, is still in a job at Christmas.

The former Getafe man has come under some pressure lately but speaking to Marca today he sounded fairly relaxed about the situation. The German started by musing about the first winter signing, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and said he expects him to do well.

"He is a good signing who we have been looking at for some time," he declared.

"He has scored with a big team like Ajax and players such as [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy, [Marco] Van Basten and Ronaldo were all big players in Holland and then, when they left, in the rest of Europe. I expect that Huntelaar will be much the same."

The German was also questioned about the upcoming fixture list, which includes matches against Barça, Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal, and said it will be good for the team.

"I am relaxed because these are the games that we wanted. Before, we had more to lose than to win and these games no suit us. We can win a lot of the next four games," he mused.

Not only are there important on-the-field events coming up for Los Blancos but there is also an important off-the-field event, in the form of the assembly. Schuster says that he expects current president Ramón Calderón to pass it with ease though.

"It will be a walk for the president, he will pass it easily. The only problem is I do not recall a substitute if he doesn't," he joked.

Calderón has come under scrutiny lately for his treatment of the youth team from former director Míchel, and today Schuster said it was sad to see the latter go, but the youth team is not easy to handle.

"It is sad he has gone, although he had reason to go, it is not an easy position," he said.

"The ones who speak about the cantera do not know what they are saying, three years ago we had great players like Jurado, [Álvaro] Negredo, [Roberto] Soldado, Javi García, [Álvaro]Arbeloa, Miguel Torres, [Rubén] De la Red, then what happened? The galaticos arrived.

"Unfortunately that team also got relegated and a lot of the players left. I would have liked to have a cantera at that level so it could allow me to do things, but it is not there at the moment."

James Walker-Roberts, Goal.com