Borussia Dortmund’s management decided at an end-of-year meeting on Thursday to continue working with coach Edin Terzic – despite the unsatisfactory season so far. Sports director Sebastian Kehl can also continue with his work unchanged. Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke remains true to his line of wanting to install Terzic as a long-term coach.
The recent disappointing football draws, the 1-1 in Augsburg and the 1-1 against relegation-threatened Mainz, had led to frustration among many fans and built up considerable pressure. Reports, especially published on Bundesliga partner broadcaster Sky, that a group of prominent players had demanded different, more offensive game tactics from the coach, made the rounds. Watzke and his advisor Matthias Sammer apparently came to the conclusion on Thursday afternoon that they would not be impressed by such voices and by the team’s mixed performance at best.
After the Christmas holidays, training at BVB begins as usual from January 2nd under the direction of Terzic, then we go to the training camp in Marbella, the last first round game against Darmstadt is on January 13th, followed by two games against the relegation-threatened team 1. FC Cologne and neighbors VfL Bochum. Anything but three wins against these three opponents would be another setback. BVB already has an insurmountable gap of 15 points to league leaders Bayer Leverkusen. The economically important fourth place, which will certainly lead to reaching the Champions League, is also at risk. Dortmund is already six points behind RB Leipzig and seven points behind VfB Stuttgart in third place.
With the exception of Oliver Glasner, the trainer market didn’t offer a good alternative to “business as usual”.
Sports director Kehl is working on ways to strengthen the team in the winter transfer window. The additions of the summer have so far not been the reinforcements we hoped for, especially after the departure of Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid). Ramy Bensebaini and Marcel Sabitzer were often criticized, Felix Nmecha, released from Wolfsburg for an impressive 30 million euros, came to Dortmund already injured and has been out for weeks. The last-minute purchase of last season’s top scorer in the Bundesliga, Niclas Füllkrug, is viewed more positively, but the former Bremer player has only managed a meager five goals so far. Sebastien Haller, who was brought in as a goalscorer 18 months ago, is currently far from Bundesliga level after surviving cancer treatment.
In addition, Dortmund were eliminated from the competition in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup after a desolate performance in Stuttgart (0-2). Only in the Champions League, where BVB were drawn against three very strong opponents in Paris, AC Milan and Newcastle United, did the team under Terzic deliver some good performances and even reached the lucrative round of 16 as group winners. There we will now face the Dutch league leaders PSV Eindhoven in February, coached by former BVB short-term coach Peter Bosz.
Bosz got off to a furious start in Dortmund in 2017 with a mercilessly offensive tactic, but then failed due to the tactically neglected defense. Terzic is currently struggling with broader problems. Under his leadership, BVB is not able to convince offensively or in terms of building up the game, and they are also lacking defensively. Dortmund scored by far the fewest goals (30) of all the top teams and conceded by far the most goals (25). Last Tuesday against Mainz, the crowd reacted to the uninspired play in the second half with a concert of whistles.
For now, however, Watzke has apparently decided to continue to focus on continuity. After the last master coach Jürgen Klopp, Dortmund (since 2015) rarely had long patience with their coaches, whether with Thomas Tuchel, Bosz, Marco Rose or Lucien Favre, who stayed for two and a half years. At the moment, however, the focus is less on the results crisis than on the generally disappointing style of football. Terzic is blatantly accused of tactical deficits. However, the coaching market offers few alternatives in the middle of the season. With the exception of Oliver Glasner, who was recently successful at Wolfsburg and Frankfurt, there seem to be hardly any candidates for the coaching position. Quite a few people therefore describe the decision in favor of Terzic as “continuing to muddle through”. But the coach can rightly point out that he has already set out to catch up twice in the second half of the season, in 2021 and 2023.