It didn’t take Marco Rose too long to bring the evening in Lisbon to a catchy four-word formula: “This is a turning point,” said Borussia Dortmund’s coach, summarizing the consequences of an almost catastrophic weak performance by BVB. The Westphalian lighthouse, which Dortmund’s boss Hans-Joachim Watzke likes to talk about, clearly has a loose contact.
With the 1: 3 bankruptcy at Sporting Lisbon, the ambitious BVB was thrown out of the Champions League without any noticeable resistance, and that already one match day before the group stage even ends. From the supposedly feasible group with the masters from the Netherlands, Portugal and Turkey, Dortmund is so defenseless with three defeats in a row that even older observers are wondering whether this has happened before.
Dortmund are kicked out against opponents who actually have to be beaten
The guesswork of how the team under Marco Rose is currently to be assessed goes into the next round. But the flickering of the lighthouse light has been visible to everyone since the embarrassment of Lisbon. In the Bundesliga, BVB ranks, almost astonishingly well, only one point behind the series champions FC Bayern in second place. With many job wins, and without even once having demonstrated the playful class over an entire game, which the club is actually claiming for itself. Criticism of the often shockingly weak defensive performance and the apparently lacking plan B for times and weeks without striker Erling Haaland could be wiped away with the points balance in the league and the work victories in the DFB Cup.
The end of the Champions League costs, roughly estimated, ten million euros for not reaching the second round, but BVB has already left nine million euros in prize money in the past three group players. Just last Sunday, BVB boss Watzke presented BVB members with a 116 million loss from the one and a half corona seasons. The failure in the Champions League weighs twice as much and clearly throws the club back.
After the two previous group game defeats against Ajax Amsterdam and now the knock-out at Sporting, the cosmetics on BVB’s face have been wiped away. By winning points against medium-sized and smaller opponents in the league, the level of performance has so far been embellished. However, a team is now emerging that has suffered from many injury breaks, but which also seems to lack the deeper game idea.
In the daily analysis, the disappointments are often linked to “individual mistakes”, as if such dropouts were god-given and now inevitable. In Lisbon, as before twice against Ajax, the structural weaknesses of the alleged championship contender Dortmund could not be concealed. The following applies to every game at the moment: it can go well. But you can also go under. That should also apply to the showdown with Munich on December 4th.
Community error in the BVB defensive
In Lisbon, a joint error between the two reserve defenders Marian Pongracic and Nico Schulz led to the 0: 1. In the second goal, the defensive six Axel Witsel and Reinier, who was the last striker, failed to disturb the goal scorer Pedro Goncalves. And at 0: 3, the substitute Dan-Axel Zagadou made a stupid foul in the penalty area. BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel then even parried the due penalty, but it was not Zagadou who stormed to the rebounding ball, only his opponent Pedro Porro, who was right next to him. Then the departure was sealed.
It is obvious to use the lack of match practice of the followers in Rose’s squad as an explanation. In Dortmund they are currently trying to talk their way out of the lack of attitude. “We don’t learn from our mistakes,” said Marco Reus, summarizing the disappointment of the evening. But the indisputable injury misery is only moderate if you look at the team line-up that BVB was able to offer. A 0-0 or 1-1 with a team like Sporting should have been possible. But you can’t let your heads hang and tip out of your football boots after every goal you concede.
“Goals are scored in the penalty areas and Sporting were better there,” said Rose afterwards. And he also criticized the lack of consistency and penetrative power of his troops, which was clearly devoured. Not a new impression, and not exclusive to Rose. It has long been noticed that Dortmund’s offensive game often seems hasty and imprecise, then again too velvety, and in the end all defects are outshone by the lonely force of Haaland. If Haaland fails, the glory is over.
There is no substitute for guys like Haaland or Lewandowski at any club. But for such exceptional players you have to have at least stylistically similar players in the squad. At Bayern this succeeds with Choupo-Moting, Rose, on the other hand, has had to deal with playing center-forwards since Haaland’s failure (due to a muscle injury) and vary the system accordingly.
It went particularly wrong in Lisbon because the young Reinier, on loan from Real Madrid, could not exude any authority at the top of the storm. Rose was also on the defensive, expected to replace the suspended Mats Hummels and unexpectedly Raphael Guerreiro, who was injured during the warm-up, with the substitute solutions Pongracic and Schulz. When Rose later came on for Zagadou, it backfired as well.
Opinions still seem to be in progress as to whether the BVB squad is simply overrated and overwhelmed in the second row. Whether some players have passed their zenith and can only pick up on them occasionally. Or whether you could not expect Rose to work collectively to bridge certain breaks in injury from regular players.
Both Champions League opponents, Amsterdam and Lisbon, have hardly any outstanding game decision-makers like a Haaland, but they have functioning group tactics in which the individual becomes an important, but not irreplaceable, cog in the gears. If you measure Rose against the opponents against whom BVB now failed in the group phase, then you can confirm Dortmund’s coach neither progress nor a happy personal touch. But you can also present a list of deficiencies to your direct superiors.