What is Dortmund’s Problem?

 

Dortmund find themselves in 12^th 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 Mönchengladbach’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?

 This data clearly shows Dortmund’s increase in errors leading to goals compared to past seasons. In my opinion, for a team to be title contenders in a league such as the Bundesliga then major errors need to be virtually non-existent. 

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.