Mirko Slomka takes Hannover to Schalke in the Bundesliga - and hopes to pile the pressure on home coach Felix Magath.

Slomka led the Royal Blues to their best result in European football by reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2008.

They were only narrowly beaten by Barcelona, but Slomka lost his job just a month later as the Gelsenkirchen club struggled in the Bundesliga.

He is now in charge of Hannover and no stranger to pressure there either, but he reckons Magath is feeling the heat more than him.

"The situation is relatively unstable at Schalke with the fans and the defeat in Hamburg," he explained in the Bild newspaper.

"I know that, and then it is not very comfortable to work there. Maybe we have the chance to capitalise on that.

"If we can play a good game, we can increase the instability. Then, maybe the atmosphere in the stadium will turn in our favour."

Magath has upset fans by firing their representative from the club's board, and they protested against what they view as heavy-handed management.

Hans Sarpei yesterday became the 11th new arrival of the summer when he joined for a fee of 400,000 euros from Bayer Leverkusen.

"We were looking for an experienced player who can play both on the right and the left of the defence," said Magath.

Magath is now looking for a playmaker and, having missed out on the signing of Diego from Juventus, the attention has turned to Rafael van der Vaart of Real Madrid.

"Van der Vaart would fit in well here," said Magath.

For tomorrow's game, Magath will have to make do with the players he had available for the defeat in Hamburg last weekend, with the addition of Sarpei.

Moritz Stoppelkamp takes the place of Carlitos in the Hannover midfield after the new signing lasted only a handful of minutes on his debut last weekend before leaving the field with a serious knee injury.