Schalke defender Christian Fuchs has questioned the strategy used by coach Roberto Di Matteo for their 5-0 defeat to Chelsea in midweek.
Di Matteo got it right on Saturday with Schalke defeating Mainz 4-1 in the Bundesliga, but Fuchs says he does not know why the Italian had to change things for their Champions League tie against his former club.
"I feel really good playing in a 3-5-2 formation," Fuchs said, responding to the question as to why Schalke had played differently on Wednesday with a shrug of the shoulders. "Good question. He must have had his ideas, but it didn't work. We can only learn from that."
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting also spoke up the merits of the 3-5-2 formation Di Matteo deployed against Mainz, saying he thoroughly enjoyed himself.
"It's a great result and was great fun too," he said on Schalke's website. "It was just what the coach asked for and I think we put his plans into practice well.
"It's a great feeling to have ended the week on a high. We wanted to show the fans that we could do better because we know we've got the quality in our side."
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar underlined that with a hat trick, although he too lamented the many ups and downs in the Royal Blues' season.
"Sometimes we are focused with great determination, and on other days we can't find our usual strengths," the Dutchman said.
"We've still got too many fluctuations in our performances. The Chelsea game was pretty bad, but we were totally different against Mainz.
"This win takes us another step upwards and earned us some important points. We've now got to latch on to this, think positive and follow our goals. We're not far away from the leading positions."
Saturday's win has lifted Schalke into the top six, just three points behind Bayer Leverkusen in the qualifying positions for the Champions League.