60 seconds on Borussia Dortmund | Andy Brassell, European football expert | OneFootball

One of the voices of European football on talkSPORT and Sky Sports, well known for The Football Ramble podcast, an author and writer for The Guardian - and a regular contributor here at Spurs for almost 10 years - Andy Brassell continues to give his insight into our UEFA Champions League opponents as part of our '60 seconds on...' feature this season.

Next up, it's Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in MD7 on Tuesday evening (8pm UK) - a team with just one defeat both in the Bundesliga, where they sit second, and in the UCL league phase, where they are level on points with us going into tonight's fixture...

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‘It was a miracle they qualified for UCL’

 Andy: “On paper, Borussia Dortmund are in a really great position, only lost once in the Champions League, only lost once in the Bundesliga, six points clear in second place, even though Hoffenheim do have a game in hand - but they're still in a little bit of transition. There are a couple of reasons for this, I think. Firstly, when Niko Kovac got the job, it was clear he had a lot on his plate. It was a miracle really for them to qualify for the Champions League. They were 10 points off with 10 games to go last season and they managed to finish in the top four. So, he performed well above expectation. I think people can look at it from the outside and say that Kovac is not a typical Dortmund manager because you associate them with swashbuckling, blood and thunder sort of football and he's all about safety first, physical effort and all that sort of stuff. However, I think he's exactly what they needed at this point in time, because there was a lot to sort out. The squad that he inherited was a little bit unbalanced so, for him to come in, not only get those great results in the last half of last season, but continue to get good results now... sometimes people complain about the style, but in terms of Dortmund having a long-needed sort out and clean of house, he's a really good coach for them. Maybe he's not everyone's ideal Dortmund coach, but the coach that they need at the moment, definitely.”

Nmecha, Silva, Bellingham – players to watch

Andy: "In terms of Dortmund trying to become more athletic, it's interesting how he's moved on from Pascal Gross, who's obviously gone back to Brighton. Jobe Bellingham, despite speculation saying he's not starting all the games, he might come back to England, that's never been on the table - Kovac loves him. He said going back to Autumn, Jobe is further ahead than we expected him to be at this point. He's very much Kovac’s cup of tea - athletic, box-to-box, covers every blade of grass. What player he'll develop into, who knows? But he's certainly one that Kovac, as well as Dortmund, are invested in. I think you look at that midfield getting younger, you look at Felix Nmecha, he's become a really key part of it as well. He was much improved last season anyway, even before Kovac arrived after having his position slightly changed under Nuri Şahin. If you look at the fact in recent weeks as well, Kovac has chosen to start Fabio Silva instead of Serhou Guirassy, which I guess is one of the big questions for tonight - Guirassy, until he scored against Werder Bremen in the midweek games last Tuesday - a goal that Jobe Bellingham created for him, by the way - he hadn't scored in the league since October. Guirassy has been incredibly reliable since he arrived at Dortmund until that little dry spell, but Fabio Silva developed a lot as a player at Las Palmas last season and, again, is someone who's full of running, full of industry, creates for others as well.”

Bundesliga, UCL – ‘Dortmund perform very differently on those two stages’

Andy: “So, Borussia Dortmund are gradually changing under Kovac. They are still a little bit of a work in progress, I think it's fair to say, but bear in mind this season, last season - and of course when they made it all the way to the final - they've been great in the Champions League. You can't think of the Bundesliga team and the Champions League team being the same team really. They perform very differently on those two stages. In the Champions League, they're very accomplished, really good at grinding out results in the league phase this season as well. So, a real top eight contender. It’s a difficult task for Spurs tonight, I suppose. Even though they have a few absences at the moment, particularly defensively, they're in reasonable shape. Obviously, it was a quite scratchy win that they snatched at the end against St Pauli at the weekend (3-2), but they're scoring goals at the moment and picked up seven points out of nine since they've come back from the winter break."

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