BVB coach Marco Rose (centre) and his players did not find the right means to avert a defeat against RB Leipzig.
Photo: imago images/Moritz Müller
Joyless, insecure, even shy, the Dortmund players stood at the end of a disappointing football game in front of this appearance they had longed for for so long. For two years they had talked about how nice it would be to play in front of a completely filled south stand. To be inspired, to finally feel all the magic of Borussia Dortmund again. But now the yellow wall whistled angrily, and some people shouted “Rose out.” BVB not only lost 4-1 to RB Leipzig, the 81,365 spectators in the stadium, which was full for the first time in 763 days, had an impressive opportunity to see what a fragile team Borussia Dortmund is at the moment. Once again. “They deserved to win,” said Mats Hummels, although it was important for the defender to emphasize that his team was by no means “played against the wall” despite the clear result.
That may be true, Dortmund was really strong for 20 minutes, the stadium vibrated and Marco Reus had a great chance to make it 1-0. But in this and many, many other scenes, all the problems that coach Rose and his players have been fighting without success for many months became apparent: they do not play decisively enough, they make too many individual mistakes, like the weak Emre Can before the 0:1 , who had lost a ball deep in his own half against Konrad Laimer without any need. They don’t deal well with setbacks and are physically inferior to many opponents. Essential offensive players like Reus or Erling Haaland are also out of shape due to injuries. Not even the basic commitment shown by the team helps.
It is “not the will if you lose the structure, if you leave your position, if the game gets wild, if you want to force things too early,” explained Hummels, who finally made a harsh judgment. BVB lacks “game intelligence”. It’s a new deficit that adds to a long list of problems that the team and their coaches just can’t get a handle on. The guys from Leipzig, who knew exactly what to do, seemed a lot more mature. “Calmly” and “cleverly” RB waited for the ball and counterattacks and acted in both penalty areas with the consistency that Dortmund lacked.
An example of this difference was the clever Laimer, who scored the first two goals himself and set up the third. “He’s someone who unites a lot, an aggressive player who always tries to win the ball fairly, he initiates counterattacks – with a pass, by dribbling – can score goals and is an important player for us,” said Domenico Tedesco. After the weak start of the season under Jesse Marsch, the Leipzig coach and his players have developed precisely that stability over the past few months that just doesn’t want to develop in Dortmund.
Because BVB does not work as a collective, the team lacks sovereignty, resilience and trust in the teammates. This can be seen in many small situations: If you look closely, you can always see gestures that individual players use to express their displeasure with their colleagues. Erling Haaland is playing his own game en route to Manchester City or some other giant club anyway and executives Reus and Hummels are far too concerned about looking good themselves rather than caring about the welfare of the group. It’s actually a miracle that until this weekend there was hope that we might still be able to become German champions. But that’s over now, said Hummels.
In the remaining six games, the second in the table is only about “developing yourself, developing us as a team and laying the foundation for the next season,” said the defense chief. Rose has similar thoughts. “We have to develop further, we have to work with the group on the group and change the group a bit in order to get these things off the ground,” said the coach. Sebastian Kehl, head of the licensed player department, is said to have been in Salzburg last week to make progress with the planned transfer of attacker Karim Adeyemi; it would be fitting if completion was reported in the coming days. Dortmund had already fought the frustration over the 2:5 against Leverkusen in February with the announcement that Niklas Süle was moving to Dortmund from Bayern Munich. Consolation about the gray present is currently donated above all by looking to the future.
