What is Dortmund’s Problem?
Dortmund find themselves in 12th position in the
Bundesliga, a huge 30 points away from the German giants Bayern Munich. For a
team who finished second place last year, and have made a huge name for
themselves in the past couple of years, this is clearly a shock for the
footballing world. Only a couple of weeks ago people were speculating that they
would be relegated come May this year. However three wins in a row have seen
them climb out of the relegation zone. Even with these three wins, the team is
clearly not the strong force that it has been the past two seasons. I have
therefore decided to look into this obvious poor performance and come up with
my own views on why the well recognised German Club, who are well distinguished
through there yellow and black kit, are under achieving this season.
The first reason, that I believe is clear, is that they are
missing their huge goal-scoring threat through their main striker last season,
Robert Lewandowski. The clinical striker has since moved to Bayern Munich where
he is scoring goals for fun, along with his teammate, Arjen Robben. Last season
Lewandowski was Dortmund’s top goal-scorer, scoring 20 goals for Dortmund. This
season however has seen the accolade of top goalscorer for Dortmund so far
going to Aubameyang, who has scored 8 goals for his side. Due to Aubameyang
notably not being a natural striker, and mainly playing out wide, it points to
the fact that Dortmund are missing the threat upfront that they used to posses
with Lewandowski. There replacement for Lewandowski has been Ciro Immobile, who
has only managed to score a mere 3 times in the Bundesliga. Immobile was bought
from the Italian side Torino after scoring 22 goals for them in 33 games,
making him Serie A top goal scorer for the 2013/14 season. The striker on paper
seemed like a decent replacement for Lewandowski due to his obvious knack of
scoring goals. However, the Italian League and German League are played in
completely different manners and it was always going to be difficult for
Immobile to jump in to the squad and begin to score goals to the degree that
Lewandowski did. In my opinion the transfer was a poor bit of business for BVB,
and it is clearly making them pay. Ten extra goals would see Dortmund with a +7
goal difference in the league, and would no doubt see them move significantly
up the table, however due to not having a striker capable of scoring they have
only managed to score a mere 28 goals from 22 games, compared to Wolfsburg’s
48. To regain strong league positions Dortmund need to look to the market for a
new striker capable of scoring goals in the Bundesliga. In the short term they
need somebody to step up, such as Marco Reus, and score plenty till the end of
the season; goals will win matches for Dortmund.
Another problem Dortmund has been facing is the amount of
goals they have been conceding. After 22 games they have already conceded a
huge 31 goals, compared to Wolfsburg’s 24, Borussia Mรถnchengladbach’s 18,
and Bayern Munich’s mere 9. These stats show how far from success Dortmund have
been this season and how weak their defence has been. With the likes of
Hummels, Subotic, and Sokratis in their defence it is not correct to say they
lack class in the area of defence. They even have one of the world’s best
goalkeepers in between the sticks, Roman Weidenfeller. So why has it all gone
wrong at the back?
My third and final reason for BVB’s dramatic collapse is
their lack of confidence. After watching the side play I saw a completely
different side to last season, with players clearly showing a lack of belief.
For a team to collapse so dramatically it is clearly going to attract a lot of
media attention, and in turn this is going to drive players confidence further
and further down, meaning performances are going to be lacklustre. The media
attention will also bring with it a huge amount of pressure, as will 80,000 of
the most passionate fans in Europe expecting to win every game and the title
that comes with it. During the winter break Klopp, Dortmund’s manager, took the
team to La Manga Club (a resort in Spain that I fortunately visit every year)
where he highly reduced the players media attention. I believe this break in
extreme attention probed by the media has worked wonders on the players belief,
as seen in the score lines of Dortmund’s past three games, where all have been
wins.
It will be interesting to see how Dortmund perform tonight
against Juventus at the Juventus Stadium. A win or a draw will certainly
silence critics and could more than easily spark a revival for the German side
this season. In my eyes I would love to see this revival, as I have always been
an admirer of the side.
