Bundesliga Champions League Primer | Borussia Dortmund | OneFootball

In the first our seven Bundesliga European primer sections to be released here on Get German Football News, it’s time to revisit the case of Borussia Dortmund. Niko Kovac’s BVB – after completely blowing their Bundesliga opener like only Dortmund can – head into European play having kept a clean sheet in their next two Bundesliga fixtures. Kovac’s team took out Union Berlin and FC Heidenheim by a combined 5-0 scoreline. Wonderful. Does it matter?

This isn’t entirely irrelevant. While FCU and FCH remain two of the absolute weakest teams in the league, one shouldn’t forget that the Dortmund squads of years past specialized in losing to bottom-table sides. The persistent criticism that the mighty Schwarzgelben never prepared for their routine Bundesliga weekend assignments doesn’t hold up this year. BVB remain undefeated through four competitive fixtures and only conceded goals in the St. Pauli match.

Are we witnessing the bucking of a trend? Maximilian Beier certainly thinks so. One begins to wonder about this team. Now that every last football fan across Europe has given up on them, can Dortmund quietly sneak their way into the title race under a battered journeyman coach whom most never gave a chance of succeeding? We’ll focus on Europe in this piece. For now, it suffices to say that BVB are definitely better than assessed in our last detailed check.

Three sections in this piece cover Dortmund’s official UCL squad, the club’s full UCL schedule, and a “tactical catch up” from the last long-form BVB article. We’ll conclude with a tip for Tuesday’s UCL opener against Juventus. In all likelihood, BVB fans can expect a serviceable debut. Nothing particularly marvelous in store just yet. Patience!

Borussia Dortmund UCL Squad

All the relevant actors are here, unless one wishes to consider back-up BVB keeper Patrick Drewes relevant in some way. Drewes and midfield outcast Salih Özcan aren’t eligible to represent die Schwarzgelben on the grandest European stage. Injured attacker Julien Duranville also isn’t here, but can be elevated via the “B-selection” whenever he happens to be fit.

Goalkeepers:

Kobel, Ostrzinski, Meyer

Defenders:

Couto, Anton, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini, Can, Svensson, Süle, Ryerson, Anselmino, Mané, Kabar

Midfielders:

Nmecha, Brandt, Gross, Chukwuemeka, Sabitzer, Campbell

Forwards:

Bellingham, Guirassy, Beier, Silva, Adeyemi

Those who have seen action are off to a good enough start. As we’ll cover in greater depth below, there have been plenty of personnel rotations from Kovac through the first three match-days. The only player who appears to have a little difficulty adjusting is Swedish left wingback Daniel Svensson. The new permanent signing hasn’t quite figured out how to work effectively on his side without a permanent partner ahead of him.

Felix Nemcha and Jobe Bellingham deserve plaudits for adapting well to a variety of tactical roles Kovac has thought up for them. Marcel Sabitzer hasn’t been quite as malleable when it comes to changing his game, but was only dropped on match-day three due to workload issues. Sabitzer’s promising training camp still leaves one hopeful that he’ll turn in a very solid season.

Borussia Dortmund UCL Schedule

Now that we know the full schedule, it’s fair to say that the flop has been kind to the Westphalians. By the time the matches get progressively more difficult, injured defensive stalwarts Niklas Süle and Nico Schlotterbeck should be back fit. In the meantime, Waldemar Anton and Ramy Bensebaini have done well shouldering the defensive burden and what we’ve seen from new Chelsea addition Aarón Anselmino looks promising.

Everyone responsible for keeping the ball out of the back of the net must nevertheless band together at the Italian Allianz on Tuesday in a very stern test against the Serie A’s second-placed side. Igor Tudor’s Juventus just put four past Inter Milan to cap their perfect three-victory start to the Italian campaign. Obviously, no BVB players struggling with injury shall make it back in time to face La Vecchia Signora.

Tuesday, September 16th

Juventus FC (A) 21:00

Wednesday, October 1st

Athletic Bilbao (H) 21:00

Tuesday, October 21st

FC Copenhagen (A) 21:00

Wednesday, November 5th

Manchester City (A) 21:00

Tuesday, November 25th

FC Villarreal (H) 21:00

Wednesday, December 10th

FK Bodø/Glimt (H) 21:00

Tuesday, January 20th

Tottenham Hotspur (H) 21:00

Wednesday, January 28th

Inter Milan (H) 21:00

Juventus were, in fact, just at the Westfalen Stadion for Dortmund’s final pre-season friendly ahead of competitive play. We touched upon the match in the BVB season primer. Totally wild tactics from Kovac and a preoccupation with Mats Hummel’s farewell led to the German hosts falling to a 1-2 defeat. Beier grabbed pulled a goal back near the end and actually nearly equalized in the unofficial test fixture. One fully expects an influential performance from him on Tuesday.

Tactics Check, Borussia Dortmund

Everything appeared poised to completely fall apart in true “Dortmund Style” after the opening day 3-3 draw against St. Pauli at the Millerntor. In a match very much reminiscent of the Werder Bremen and VfB Stuttgart comebacks of the ill-fated 2022/23 Edin Terzic campaign, the Kiezkicker totally humiliated BVB with another one of those – as Terzic once put it – “stupid late flops“.

To make matters infinitely worse, Mark Bellingham opted to burst into the Dortmund locker room in the catacombs of the stadium in order to argue about how his son was improperly used tactically. Yikes! To be absolutely fair to the Bellingham family, however, they were actually right. One cannot honestly see why Kovac thought this 3-2-2-2 solid idea:

Lineup—Dortmund—Match One

The Hamburgers took advantage of the narrow and unbalanced nature of the top two axes to force plenty of turnovers and generate several useful counters. Were it not for some heroics from Gregor Kobel, St. Pauli would have headed into the tunnel two or potentially three goals to the good. Dortmund nevertheless had their moments too and secured a semi-deserved 0-1 lead.

A penalty stop from FCSP keeper Nikola Vasilj preserved the tight scoreline. What Dortmund furnished from open play didn’t suffice and Kovac pulled the trigger on a double-change at the half. Nmecha and Julian Brandt replaced Bellingham and Karim Adeyemi. A clearer 3-4-3 shape in the second 45 sought to coax the team into more coherent build-up play.

Lineup—Dortmund—46th minute

It worked for a little while until a ball loss from Svensson lead St. Pauli netting the 1-1 five minutes after the restart. Dortmund lost control of the game and only took a 1-3 lead thanks to a deflected-in goal and one individual moment of brilliance from Brandt. St. Pauli absolutely refused to give up and, eventually, were able to earn the 3-3 draw once rookie Filippo Mané’s infamous red card opened the door for the 2-3 from the spot. Certified FCSP “punk rocker” Eric Smith then smashed in the unforgettable equalizer.

The club showed no real signs of panic, even extending Kovac’s contract during the subsequent training week. For the first home game of the season against Union Berlin, Kovac went with three personnel changes. Anselmino replaced the suspended Mané while Brandt and Beier started over Pascal Groß and Karim Adeyemi. Bellingham moved back to work a split-stagger with Sabitzer. The basic plan-of-attack on the top two axes remained the same, but the wingbacks moved up and the back-three

Lineup—Dortmund—(Match Two)

In terms of approach play, this functioned fairly well. Guirassy really struggled with his finishing during the first half, finally turning home the 1-0 in the 44th. Union – actually pretty strong on set-pieces this year – came close to equalizing on some early corners in the second half before Guirassy sunk the 2-0 in the 58th. Union basically wilted after the second goal and Dortmund cruised to their first victory of the season. Nmecha added a spectacular distance effort in the 81st to make it 3-0.

That brings us to this weekend. Ahead of what might prove an eminently forgettable league encounter with last-placed Heidenheim, Kovac had two enforced changes to make. Anselmino (muscular injury) and Brandt (hand surgery) were replaced by Adeyemi and Julian Ryerson. Nmecha and Bellingham took over for Bellingham and Sabitzer (whom we’ll probably see on Tuesday) in midfield. As best one could tell, the shape was meant to remain fairly static. We didn’t get much of a football match here.

Lineup—Dortmund—(Match Three)

An early injury to Heidenheim’s only natural left-back Leart Paqarada, followed shortly thereafter by a sending off for FCH striker Budu Zivzivadze, helped Dortmund to sew this one up early. Guirassy – after some more early problems with his finishing – got the opener. Beier handled to the 2-0 before the first half concluded. Ahead of the UCL fixture, BVB switched into administrative mode until the last ten minutes or so. With that, we’re all caught up.

Tuesday Tip,

Juventus 1, Dortmund 1

We’ll go for the unspectacular here. Who will start as the right-slant centre-back in the back-three remains a problem. Kovac actually might wish he had Özcan to turn to here. The assignment is likely too tough a task for Mané or Almugera Kabar. Ryerson – despite some shakiness against Heidenheim – shall likely get the nod again. Yan Couto can also move back while Ryerson takes over his right wingback role.

Though there’s been plenty of nuance to Kovac’s positional assignments, the basic automatisms of a 3-4-3/3-2-2-2 remain in place. There should be enough muscle-memory in place to at least cancel out a Serie A side tactically. Guirassy surely surges with confidence after his recent record-setting performance, yet still isn’t exactly clicking fully yet. This one should end in a low-scoring draw.

GGFN | Peter Weis