Borussia Dortmund

When it comes to the transfer market, Borussia Dortmund have earned an excellent reputation.

Keeping the Black and Yellows among the top 15 or so clubs in European football despite regularly losing the best players to teams with more financial firepower requires a keen eye and shrewd investments. The margin for error is smaller than, say, Bayern Munich's or Real Madrid's.

By and large, Dortmund's decision-makers—transfers are executed by sporting director Michael Zorc but agreed upon by him, chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke and head coach Thomas Tuchel—have done well in identifying transfer targets and closing deals.

Whether they are "the undisputed kings of the transfer market," as Squawka put it in the summer, is a question everyone has to answer on an individual basis. In any case, though, bad decisions from Dortmund are so rare that they stick out like a sore thumb.

Of the current crop of players who arrived at the Westfalenstadion at the start of the season, Sebastian Rode has all the makings of such a miss on the transfer market for the Black and Yellows.

The club was in a difficult situation in the summer, having seen three world-class players depart for greener pastures in team captain Mats Hummels, midfield mastermind Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan—by all accounts, the team's best player last season.

They answered those losses by signing no fewer than eight players, mostly talented youngsters with little experience. While not all of those talents have emerged to this point—defensive all-rounder Mikel Merino has played only one game, for example, while attacker Emre Mor struggles to make the squad these days—they have at least indicated their vast potential and suggested they can become difference-makers.

More seasoned signings Marc Bartra, Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle have played when health and fitness have permitted and can be considered regulars, even though they have yet to find a consistent level.

Inconsistency is not something Rode can be accused of. He has been consistent—but consistently average, at best.

The 26-year-old, signed for €12 million, per Transfermarkt, was brought in to add another dimension to Dortmund's midfield after the Black and Yellows lacked some power and aggression in the middle of the park during Tuchel's first year at the club.

A determined runner and physical box-to-box midfielder, Rode was never going to replace Gundogan in a creative role; rather, the hope was that he would give his head coach another option with strengths in pressing and counter-pressing.

A player such as the former Bayern Munich man, so was the thinking, could have helped in the dramatic UEFA Europa League collapse at Anfield against Liverpool, when Dortmund squandered a two-goal lead with 33 minutes to go to crash out of the quarter-finals after being heavily favoured to win the competition.

During pre-season, those hopes looked justified. Rode was in impressive physical shape and played well in friendly matches. He was arguably the best player on the pitch against Manchester City, for example, when he not only put in tone-setting challenges defensively but also constructed a number of attacking moves.

Once the season started, however, the 26-year-old failed to deliver complete performances of that kind. He still looked strong as a ball-winner and remained a physical presence in central midfield, but his overly conservative passing is to the detriment of the team's attacking play.

Rode's reluctance to play balls forward with any kind of conviction has turned into a running gag on social media. One can notice a ubiquitous groan whenever he is in the starting XI or enters the pitch as a substitute.

His lack of quality on the ball makes him an odd fit for most games Dortmund play, with opponents usually content with leaving possession to the Black and Yellows while man-marking principal buildup player Julian Weigl.

Leaving responsibilities on the ball to Rode makes the entire team more predictable, as he will always choose the simplest pass available. Even worse, his decision-making under pressure is a weakness that can put the team's defence in danger, as was evident in the Bundesliga loss to Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Yellow Wall's Luca Gierl took it with gallows humour on Twitter:

I call this piece of art: on Rode to conceding a goal. Welp… pic.twitter.com/tNDdxL1yaC

— Luca Gierl (@LucaGierl) November 28, 2016

Rode's deficiencies on the ball relegate him to a part-time role, as a closer look at his usage reveals. He has been part of the team 19 times, missing only one match because he had his appendix removed, and has appeared in 16 of those games. Only Ousmane Dembele, Weigl, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Gonzalo Castro have played in more games.

However, Rode has been on the field for only 791 minutes, roughly 43 per cent of the time. Even though €12 million is not what it used to be for a club of Dortmund's size, they likely expected more from the signing.

Seeing as he was one of the more experienced men to join the team in the summer and talked about his desire to become a leader in a press conference (link in German) early in his Dortmund career, it is safe to assume that both club and player are unsatisfied with the returns of the transfer to this point.

Of course, the situation is not unsalvageable. Rode would not be the first player who took his time to get up to speed with Dortmund. Even experienced signings can struggle with transfers to the Westfalenstadion. Castro is a fine example; the 29-year-old only became an important player toward the end of his first season with the Black and Yellows.

Perhaps it is even unfair to judge Rode on his first few months with Dortmund. The major squad turnover in the summer was always going to lead to problems this season, not only for the new signings. Even someone such as Weigl, a paragon of consistency in his maiden campaign at the top-flight level last season, is struggling to hit his best in many games so far.

However, most players who did not work out straight away at least indicated their potential. Gundogan, for example, found himself in the stands during his first half-season at Dortmund, but he displayed the technical abilities and football intelligence that would later make him one of the best central midfielders in the game.

Not only is Rode five years older than Gundogan was at the time—and, as such, does not have the same room to grow—but he also has not even hinted at qualities Tuchel will find a good use for in a vast majority of games the 43-year-old has to prepare his team for.

Rode was considered a safe, what-you-see-is-what-you-get signing in the summer, but it simply feels as though Dortmund misjudged his fit in the current setup. There is no natural role for the former Bayern man in Tuchel's preferred style of play.

That is not to say he is a bad player. On the contrary, Rode would likely be talked about as one of the better players in the Bundesliga if he played on a team that accentuates his strengths. Put him in a side like Cologne, and there is every chance some pundits would demand the midfielder get an invitation to the German national team.

For Dortmund, however, he seems a rare miss on the transfer market—early days notwithstanding.

There are some parallels to the last big-money flop the club signed in Ciro Immobile. The Italian striker was also brought in when a world-class player left in Robert Lewandowski, costing Dortmund a substantial €18.5 million fee from Torino.

Rode is an entirely different player from Gundogan, so it is unfair to expect him to be a replacement for the former star. The same was true of Immobile and Lewandowski, who are two entirely different strikers. 

Much like Rode, Immobile was supposed to add aggression and power to the team, with then-head coach Jurgen Klopp hailing him as a "real warrior" at the time, per Goal's Peter McVitie.

It was clear quickly, though, that the Serie A Capocannoniere and Dortmund were an odd fit, with Immobile scoring only three league goals for the club.

The 26-year-old spent all of one year at the Westfalenstadion, as both sides realised his signing was one big misunderstanding.

The same does not have to happen for Rode—not least because, unlike Immobile, he fits into the squad on a personal level—but he has to improve dramatically if he does not wish to be considered Dortmund's next flop signing.

                                    

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

A deserved, but perhaps a bit unlucky, 2-1 defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 12 of the 2016/17 Bundesliga season seems to have heralded the start of open season on Borussia Dortmund head coach Thomas Tuchel.

Internet message boards and social media are one thing, but even respected voices close to the club from the Ruhr valley have set their sights on the 43-year-old.

Thomas Hennecke theorised in Monday's edition of German sport magazine Kicker that the coach could lose the dressing room after Tuchel laid into his team in his post-match press conference. With that, the writer continued, he deflected criticism from himself.

Matthias Dersch of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (link in German) took the same line, demanding Tuchel start with his own shortcomings instead of blasting his players.

Even the club's official website described the coach's analysis of the game as "brief, yet brutal." It quoted him saying: "Our performance as a whole was deficient. It began during training this week, and today it was a performance from the first to the last minute that merited no points."

Harsh words, of course, but no one who watched the game will find much with which to disagree. The Black and Yellows looked lethargic, lackadaisical and made inexcusable errors leading to a deserved defeat, despite having the chances to come away with at least one point and being denied a blatant penalty.

Dortmund-based Dersch's immediate reaction to the Frankfurt match was to question Tuchel's personnel decisions, via Twitter (link in German), focusing mostly on the heavy rotation between games.

Freddie Rockenhaus of Suddeutsche Zeitung (link in German), perhaps the writer closest to the club's decision-makers, adopted a similar stance, arguing the changes made compared to the 8-4 win over Legia Warsaw in the Champions League were to blame for the defeat against the Hessians.

One could point out that suggestion was aided by the fact Ousmane Dembele was far and away the team's best player coming off the bench against Frankfurt after impressing against Legia in midweek. On the other hand, who's to say that the Frenchman did not benefit from tiring opponents towards the end of the game?

While it is true that Tuchel made an enormous amount of changes from Saturday to Wednesday to Saturday, it has to be noted that the team that won a famous victory over Bayern Munich on Matchday 11 was only changed in two spots compared to the one which took on Frankfurt and failed miserably.

One of those changes was forced by injury, as Roman Weidenfeller has taken over from Roman Burki in goal after the Swiss broke his hand against the Bavarians. So essentially, there was one change from the Bayern match.

Using the wacky night against Legia as a measuring stick for anything seems an ill-advised strategy, seeing as the Poles were hardly a competitive opponent.

Being part of a team that conceded four goals against opposition that, with all due respect, has no business competing in European football's premier competition hardly made for a great application to start the much tougher Bundesliga match, one would think.

Even if we take a broader look at the entire season so far, it seems far too easy to focus on Tuchel's personnel decisions as the biggest factor in the team's up-and-down performances.

Per numbers compiled by Dortmund fan blog Schwatzgelb (link in German), there has been an average of 4.15 changes made to the team's starting XI per match across all competitions. Changing more than a third of the team for each game may seem a lot, but it is far from outrageous.

The Black and Yellows have played 1,830 minutes of football this season and, per Transfermarkt.com, 11 players have played more than half of those minutes. Another six players have spent at least one-third of all possible minutes on the pitch.

That leaves nine of the 25 players used this season as fringe players who have only seen the field sparingly, playing less than one-third of all possible minutes. That number, however, includes back-up goalkeeper Weidenfeller and players who returned from long-term injuries, such as Marco Reus or Erik Durm.

In comparison, Bayern Munich also have 11 players who have played more than half of all possible minutes, four who have played at least one-third and eight who can be considered fringe players by the definition used above, per Transfermarkt.

Now, both Dortmund and Bayern have had their struggles this season and generally not hit their best form so far, but nobody would criticise Carlo Ancelotti for being too jumpy in his personnel decisions or too flexible in his tactical decisions.

Both the veteran Italian and Tuchel have suffered from some of the same problems, too. Bayern and Dortmund have been hit by injuries this season, and both have players on their teams who tend to take their time getting back to their best when coming back from a lay-off.

For the Black and Yellows, the injury crisis forced Tuchel into making an inordinate amount of changes throughout October and November, with naturally mixed results.

He had to rely on a young team that has yet to become a cohesive unit in many games and, while that cannot serve as an excuse for a number of poor performances, it has to be taken into account when complaining about his tinkering with the squad.

Not only does Tuchel have to be careful when reintegrating players after injuries for fear of reaggravation of those maladies, he also has to take prophylactic measures with a number of injury-prone players who are vital to Dortmund's success this season.

One of the keys to Tuchel's impressive maiden campaign at the Westfalenstadion was that he managed to keep the squad healthy for the most part. The failures in the Europa League against Liverpool and in the DFB-Pokal final shootout loss against Bayern had a lot to do with the fact that Dortmund missed Ilkay Gundogan in both instances and had to replace Mats Hummels after 78 minutes against his new club in the cup.

Quite simply, rotation is a necessity for a team that is led by players such as Reus, Mario Gotze or team captain Marcel Schmelzer, all of whom have lengthy injury histories.

Much more than personnel decisions Tuchel has made during the campaign, decisions that were made in the summer are at the root of the problem for Dortmund. As this writer argued in an earlier piece, the club's decision not to bring in a creative central midfielder to replace Gundogan has showed up time and again.

Against Frankfurt, there was no link between the team's defensive and offensive structures—precisely what the Germany international provided on a world-class level under Tuchel last season. The Black and Yellows struggle against aggressive opponents who attack them high up the pitch with man-oriented pressing.

Teams have identified Julian Weigl as Dortmund's most important player and, in many games, successfully isolated the 21-year-old from his team-mates. This has left the principal buildup duties to defenders who are not on Hummels' level as ball-players or midfielders such as Gotze or Gonzalo Castro, whose biggest strengths lie further up the pitch.

The only player in the squad who can take on Gundogan's responsibilities seems to be summer signing Raphael Guerreiro, who has missed eight games with various injuries. The fact that Dortmund have to rely on a 22-year-old they signed as a left-back from lowly FC Lorient in Ligue 1 as their saviour in midfield is telling.

That is where criticism ought to be directed first and foremost, not at Tuchel's decisions on a weekly basis.

Of course, the head coach is not free from blame, far from it. For example, his coming back to Sebastian Rode as a holding midfielder has failed spectacularly in nearly every game. Putting Adrian Ramos on the wings has not yielded positive results either.

And, yes, he could have found a more elegant solution after the Frankfurt match, where justified criticism towards his team made it look as though he tried to avoid the blame when a young team would perhaps be better served if the head coach shielded them from it.

But pointing to Tuchel's tinkerman-like approach to team selections as the major reason for a season that has turned into a near-constant stop and go seems lazy.

The 43-year-old is an easy target, seeing as he is more respected than beloved by the club's fans and not overly charismatic in his interactions with the media.

Tuchel's only answer has to come on the field, starting with the next Bundesliga game against Borussia Monchengladbach.

The best way to improve a team is still on the training ground, and this will be the first time since the start of the campaign that Dortmund's head coach will have an entire week to prepare for a match.

If he wants to change the narrative, Tuchel will have to make good use of the opportunity.

                               

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

Borussia Dortmund's stint as veritable contenders for the Bundesliga title in the 2016/17 season lasted all of seven days.

Their 1-0 win over Bayern Munich on the previous matchday had been considered a statement victory. Not only did they finally beat the Bavarians in a meaningful league match for the first time since 2012, but they showed they have the necessary flexibility to win matches while forgoing most of the principles of their play, focusing on pressure and defending rather than the possession game.

Seven days and a thoroughly deserved 2-1 defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt later, they are nine points behind league leaders RB Leipzig and dropped back to six behind Bayern.

Sitting only seventh in the table, also behind teams such as Frankfurt, Cologne, Hoffenheim, the Black and Yellows have their work cut out for them just to make the UEFA Champions League next season.

Title talk can once and for all be put to the rest for this campaign. There was never much of a chance of the Ruhr side competing for the championship given the many new faces head coach Thomas Tuchel had to integrate in his squad, but what little chance there was now has to be considered gone.

That is how bad Dortmund were at Frankfurt on Saturday.

The 43-year-old rightfully laid into his team in his post-match press conference, saying: "Technically, tactically, mentally—and complemented by willingness. Our performance as a whole was deficient. It began during training this week, and today it was a performance from the first to the last minute that merited no points."

The former Mainz boss looked increasingly frustrated on the sideline as the game wore on, with microphones on the touchline picking up his commands that turned from shouts to yells.

In his exasperation over his team's performance, Tuchel even went out of character and made all three changes in one go with more than 30 minutes of play left—the storied club's first-ever triple substitution in the German top flight, per the Bundesliga on Twitter.

He probably would have made seven or eight changes had he been allowed to do so, with only two or three players hitting their normal form. 

Dortmund were especially bad in midfield, where Julian Weigl had what could well have been his worst game since coming to Westfalenstadion in the summer of 2015.

Already without a creative central midfielder because of Raphael Guerreiro's injury, the Black and Yellows needed more from their principal buildup player, whose numbers—64 touches in 57 minutes and 87.7 per cent pass-completion rate, per WhoScored.com—look decent but fail to tell the correct story.

Team-mates left the 21-year-old out to dry, however, with Mario Gotze and Gonzalo Castro disappearing for most of the game. The former followed up his arguably best performance for Dortmund against previous club Bayern with perhaps his worst.

A player of Gotze's calibre should be able to take the reins in a match in which his team-mates are struggling to move the ball forward with any purpose, but he went down with the rest of the team.

Dortmund's passing map, provided by tactics blogger 11tegen11 on Twitter, shows how there was no link between the team's defensive and offensive structures, which resulted in an alignment without any real presence in the middle of the park:

#BVB not really in tune here.
Look how much more touches players at the back take compared to the front three. #passmap pic.twitter.com/b8sY9Z5WpH

— 11tegen11 (@11tegen11) November 26, 2016

A lot of the credit for Dortmund's problems in midfield belongs to Frankfurt, of course. One of the surprise teams of the Bundesliga after narrowly escaping relegation last season, Niko Kovac's side impressed with excellent organisation and tactical flexibility, switching between three-, four- and five-man defences throughout the 90 minutes.

That said, Tuchel's men still had enough opportunities to win the match. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was close to scoring an incredible goal in the first half, when he "flicked the ball over a Frankfurt defender to have a clear sight of Lukas Hradecky's goal but drove his shot just wide," as ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko described it.

The Gabonese later scored a momentary equaliser after brilliant work from substitute Ousmane Dembele, far and away the Black and Yellows' best player on the day. The 19-year-old almost saved his team with a fantastic curler in stoppage time, only for it to clang off the crossbar.

It was that kind of day for the Ruhr side, who were also denied a blatant penalty when Marco Reus was held by David Abraham in the box and had another appeal in stoppage time waved off, which looked to be a better call from referee Wolfgang Stark.

Quite frankly, though, Dortmund did not deserve to come away from Frankfurt with a point or more.

A team that concedes more or less straight from kick-offs twice in a game deserves nothing but a defeat and a miserable ride home.

Fifteen seconds were all it took Frankfurt to score in the second half, with Szabolcs Huszti punishing Dortmund's somnolence out of the break. "Judging by the way we left the changing room, I would have been astounded if we had not conceded one," Tuchel said in his post-match remarks. 

A positioning error by team captain Marcel Schmelzer, of all people, allowed Timothy Chandler to play a simple cutback pass into the path of Huszti, with no BVB midfielder picking up the Hungarian's run through a central channel into the box, as can be observed from the 41-second mark in the video below:

Frankfurt are not a team against whom you want to chase a goal, seeing as they are so well-organised and have excellent centre-backs in Abraham and Real Madrid loanee Jesus Vallejo. When Dortmund finally did find the equaliser, it took them less than a minute to throw it all away again.

This time, Sebastian Rode forced team-mate Matthias Ginter into a pass that was promptly intercepted. Lukasz Piszczek failed to close down Huszti, who laid off to Haris Seferovic, who slotted home from range.

Not only was it the second goal that came quickly after kick-off for Frankfurt, but it was also the second time this season that Dortmund conceded right after scoring themselves—it also happened in the disappointing 3-3 draw at Ingolstadt.

This writer lamented the Black and Yellows' dropping intensity levels in second halves this season in a previous piece, but it has never been as glaring as it was against Frankfurt. Dortmund have conceded 11 of their 14 league goals against in the second 45 minutes of games, an unacceptable rate that puts their focus and attitude into question.

Fans will not feel overly confident in the team's defence at the moment, especially with back-up goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller replacing the injured Roman Burki until the winter break.

The veteran German has conceded six goals against Legia Warsaw and Frankfurt despite Dortmund allowing only seven and four shots on target in those two games, per WhoScored.com. Weidenfeller only got a palm on Seferovic's shot, an attempt Burki would perhaps have saved.

If there is a silver lining for the Ruhr side, it is that they finally have a full week of training to work on their deficiencies before facing struggling Borussia Monchengladbach on home turf on Matchday 13. Factoring in international breaks, it is the first time Tuchel has had an entire week to prepare his team since the start of the Bundesliga season in late August.

The 43-year-old bemoaned in his press conference that "our entire season has been characterised by peaks and troughs" and called the situation "very unsatisfactory."

Dortmund have to show a reaction, starting with the Gladbach match. Not to get back into title consideration, though. That ship has sailed. After the defeat at Frankfurt, even the last optimist must have realised as much.

                           

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

If there is a positive in losing an influential leader, it is that it allows others to step up and take on more responsibilities. 

Mats Hummels was such a leader for Borussia Dortmund, the team captain was more than just a world-class centre-back. He was the team's mouthpiece, nicknamed "class representative" in the early days of his career at the Westfalenstadion, when he was part of a young team making headway in the Bundesliga under Jurgen Klopp.

The captain's armband went to left-back Marcel Schmelzer, who has developed into a leader himself, but there is no question who commands Dortmund's back line. Sokratis Papastathopoulos has taken on that role and ran with it. The 28-year-old is the team's most consistent performer this season.

It is only fitting that fans, players and even the staff call him "Papa," German for "dad," due to his tongue-twisting last name. Like a good dad, Sokratis has taken the other centre-backs under his wing this season.

Instead of getting in an experienced replacement for Hummels on the transfer market—though not for a lack of trying, as they were after Bayer Leverkusen's Omer Toprak, who himself was keen on the move, per local paper Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German)—the Black and Yellows opted to sign Marc Bartra from FC Barcelona for a bargain €8 million.

The 25-year-old comes with the pedigree of having learned his trade at La Masia and having previously played for Pep Guardiola, a coach Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel looks up to. But Bartra has played so little for the Blaugrana over the years that he cannot be expected to be a player others can look up to, not least because of the language barrier.

Matthias Ginter has also been thrust into a regular role in the heart of defence due to the long-term injury of Sven Bender, who has yet to make his season debut after picking up a foot injury on international duty with Germany at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Ginter has played surprisingly well at centre-back in his first extended run at the position since his move to the Westfalenstadion in 2014, but the 22-year-old is not only relatively inexperienced, he is also a quiet character by nature.

Sokratis is also a man of few words off the pitch, but he turns into a different person once he steps onto the playing surface. He displays positive body language, encourages his team-mates, arbitrates when there are disputes between players from both sides and animates his side from the back.

A deputy captain who has worn the armband in six games this season with Schmelzer injured or rested, the Greek's development comes as a bit of a surprise.

In Tuchel's first season in charge of the Ruhr side, he converted midfielder Bender to centre-back, with the German seemingly overtaking Sokratis on the depth chart. His lack of ball-playing ability from the back line made him a less-than-stellar fit for the 43-year-old's possession-orientated playing style, in which the centre-backs are buildup players as much as defenders.

Sokratis found himself on the bench in some crucial games, be it the first leg of the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals against Liverpool or the DFB-Pokal semi-final at Hertha BSC.

He and Hummels never quite clicked as a centre-back pairing during their three seasons together. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner always looked better alongside his long-time partner Neven Subotic or, last season, next to Bender.

Both Hummels and Sokratis prefer to be proactive defenders, often leaving their post to anticipate balls higher up the pitch, which left Dortmund vulnerable when they lost the duel or missed a ball. 

This season, the Greece international's positioning has improved dramatically, as he seems to have taken well to Tuchel's coaching in the summer. The 27-year-old is able to put out fires before they develop in Dortmund's defensive third, which will show up in the goals-conceded column before long.

The team's stats with and without him perfectly illustrate just how important he has become this season: In the 1.461 minutes he has played, per Transfermarkt, Dortmund have conceded 10 goals. In the 279 minutes he has missed, Dortmund allowed nine goals (he missed three games through injury or for rest and was taken off with a knock against Hamburger SV).

     

	With Sokratis	Without Sokratis
Games	16	3
Wins	11	1
Clean sheets	5	0
Goals conceded/game	0.69	2.67

     

It is no coincidence that the team looked their worst defensively against Ingolstadt, a game he missed with muscle problems, and Legia Warsaw in midweek, when Sokratis was given a rest. Even though he is not necessarily a player with the strategic mind to organise a defence by himself, his mere presence makes a huge difference.

Just ask Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, who spent most of the 90 minutes in Sokratis' pocket. He was able to overpower the imperious Pole to great effect, limiting him to a single shot on target, per WhoScored.com.

Sokratis vs Bayern:
4 interceptions
11 clearances
2/2 tackles
50 touches
22/29 passes
76% completion

— BVBstatistics (@BVBstat) November 19, 2016

It was no stretch to call the Greece international Dortmund's match-winner, as he received the joint-highest rating with a grade that translated to eight out of 10 from BVB reporter Matthias Dersch for local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (in German).

Per ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko, Sokratis was also the best player on the pitch in the Revierderby against Schalke 04 earlier in November. Buczko noted "Sokratis is the kind of defender any coach would want to have in a derby."

His mentality and spirit make him a big-game specialist, as was evident in the cup-final defeat against Bayern in May, when he became a tragic hero after putting in an excellent performance but missing a penalty in the shootout. The fact that he stepped up to the plate when others would not, despite his lacking technique, tells fans all they need to know about Sokratis.

He even made strides in the buildup phase, completing 90 per cent of his passes in the Bundesliga this season, per Squawka.com, trailing only Felix Passlack and Julian Weigl in that regard.

Of course, his most regularly played pass is a simple ball to his centre-back partner, be it Bartra or Ginter, who are both more adept at playing vertically. That said, he is also more accurate with his own long passes, per WhoScored, completing a solid 60 per cent of his long balls in the Bundesliga this season, compared to only 43 per cent in the last campaign.

His core competence is still battling with strikers, of course, and he does it as well as ever, winning 68.4 per cent of his duels, per a tweet from stat provider Opta, while committing only 1.2 fouls per game, per WhoScored.

Once known as a bit of a loose cannon on the pitch, Sokratis has matured into one of the most solid and dependable defenders in the Bundesliga.

He has become irreplaceable for Dortmund both as a defensive stalwart and as a leader, putting together the strongest season of his career at the Westfalenstadion to this point.

                              

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

In hindsight, we should have known something strange was about to happen in the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night, when Borussia Dortmund took on Legia Warsaw on Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League group stage.

The Ruhr side announced a lineup with no fewer than nine new faces compared to the team that beat Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday, with only centre-backs Marc Bartra and Matthias Ginter staying in the team.

Bartra, however, was not supposed to start, with an apparent transmission error leading to his inclusion over Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Dortmund even announced the Greek defender would make the start, only for UEFA to shut that down because the change came too late in the evening (via UEFA's German-language Twitter account).

Head coach Thomas Tuchel smiled away the odd episode, telling German broadcaster Sky before the match the starting XI was perfectly fine even with Bartra playing instead of Sokratis, arguably the team's most consistent player of the campaign so far.

Maybe the 43-year-old changed his mind after 10 minutes, when the Catalan defender first positioned himself badly and then was easily pushed away in a duel, which led to Legia shockingly going in front through a brilliant outside-of-the-boot goal from Aleksandar Prijovic.

What ensued for the rest of the game was perhaps the wackiest match in Champions League history, a constant back and forth of comical defending and clinical finishing. It was every social media editor's dream come true and every writer's worst nightmare if a deadline was to be met on the same night.

Live tweeting Borussia Dortmund tonight: pic.twitter.com/Ptc3z6nhjC

— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 22, 2016

Dortmund and Warsaw produced the most goals in a single match in European football's premier competition ever, the final result of 8-4 one-upping a legendary group-stage match between AS Monaco and Deportivo La Coruna from 2003.

And there could have been even more goals, as both sides hit the post and Dortmund were denied a blatant penalty in the second half. 

"I'm very surprised how this match developed," Tuchel said after the game in perhaps the biggest understatement of the year, per the club's official website. "It's difficult to analyse objectively. This match is tough to evaluate at first glance."

Indeed, it would not only be borderline impossible to analyse just how the goals went down, it would also be pointless.

10': ⚽
17': ⚽
18': ⚽
20': ⚽
24': ⚽
29': ⚽
32': ⚽
52': ⚽
57': ⚽
81': ⚽
83': ⚽
90': ⚽ pic.twitter.com/OUSnVEFgbk

— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 22, 2016

Legia have scored seven goals in the last two games against Real Madrid and Dortmund but are contenders for the questionable honour of being called the worst side in Champions League history.

Dortmund, meanwhile, played with a lineup that will never be seen again in a game they knew they would win 99 out of 100 times. Even after conceding three goals, Tuchel took off Bartra and brought on Erik Durm, leaving the Black and Yellows with one learned defender, Ginter, for the final 30 minutes.

If we allow ourselves one genuine takeaway amid all the banter this match provided, it is that Marco Reus is back and looks to be in outstanding form.

Back. With. A. Bang.

🇩🇪🎩 pic.twitter.com/T8HM0RBiZv

— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 22, 2016

The 27-year-old made his long-awaited season debut after overcoming muscular issues that had also cost him an appearance for Germany at Euro 2016, playing for the first time in 185 days.

He scored a hat-trick (if his third goal in stoppage time is not ultimately considered an own goal by UEFA) and assisted one of Ousmane Dembele's goals, but, more than his scoring contribution against Legia's laughable "defence," the fact that he looked spry for 90 minutes was encouraging.

At one point in the second half, Tuchel offered to take him off, but Reus signalled to the sideline he wanted to stay on the pitch, proving there was no pain or fatigue after a months-long injury lay-off.

"It was fantastic that it worked out so well," the head coach said about Reus' comeback, again per the club's website. "A fantastic performance which highlights the quality that we have been without for months. He has been sorely missed."

The absence of perhaps the team's biggest star has almost been overlooked when analysts dissected Dortmund's up-and-down start to the season, as this writer argued in an earlier piece, with most, if not all, attention going to the major departures the Black and Yellows suffered in the transfer market.

Even though it was only against Legia, it seems both the club's and Reus' patience will be rewarded. Whereas he often looked sluggish out of the blocks coming back from injuries, this time it seems they waited for the 27-year-old to regain his form through training and not match practice, allowing him to make an impact straight away.

The most natural goalscorer Dortmund have outside of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who surprisingly did not score in his 20-minute cameo off the bench on Tuesday, Reus adds another dimension to the Black and Yellows in attack, making them even more dangerous and unpredictable.

Borussia Dortmund have now scored 5+ goals in 10 separate games under Thomas Tuchel.

So dangerous going forward. pic.twitter.com/JiUhhkrucV

— Squawka (@Squawka) November 22, 2016

The man himself was naturally delighted with the match, telling Sky (h/t Stefan Buczko for The Yellow Wall): "This is how you would imagine your comeback after such a long time. I looked forward to this moment and worked very hard for it."

Reus' comeback provided the biggest feel-good story of the match, trumping goals for Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa, who may well be playing their last few matches for the club ahead of the winter transfer window, or a maiden goal for Felix Passlack.

However fun the game was for neutrals and fans in the stadium, however, the defensive horror show has to be a worry for Tuchel.

It was Roman Weidenfeller's first of seven games between the sticks in lieu of the injured Roman Burki, and, while it would be harsh to blame him for any of the four goals he conceded, it was hardly a confidence-inducing start to his stint as the No. 1 goalkeeper.

The 36-year-old also produced the hilarious highlight of the evening—quite the accomplishment given the competition for that distinction—when he inexplicably tried an overhead kick for a clearance instead of simply catching the ball with his hands:

https://twitter.com/Alfib91/status/801201240621416448

It was that kind of game for Weidenfeller. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner has enough experience to shrug off the night as a one-off event, with Tuchel pointing out the veteran "won't particularly need advice or encouragement from me."

However, with important Bundesliga fixtures and the play-off for the group win with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu coming up, fans would rest easier if Weidenfeller had a more relaxed time on Saturday, when Dortmund take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the league.

                                       

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

Borussia Dortmund celebrated an important win in perhaps their biggest game of the first half of the 2016/17 season on Saturday, beating perennial Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich 1-0 in front of their own fans at the Westfalenstadion.

The victory came at a price, however, with the Black and Yellows announcing on their official website on Sunday evening that goalkeeper Roman Burki suffered a broken hand in the game.

The Switzerland international will have to undergo surgery and "will not be available for BVB for all the games up to the end of the year."

The 26-year-old played through the injury against the Bavarians—it is unclear when it occurred—keeping his fifth clean sheet of the season and a third in the last four meetings against Bayern across all competitions.

Burki has made a big step forward in his second season after an up-and-down maiden campaign in the Ruhr valley following his move from SC Freiburg in the summer of 2015.

In his first year at the club, he visibly struggled with the change from getting bombarded with shots for a team fighting for Bundesliga survival to only seeing action two or three times in many games. He developed into a more consistent 'keeper during that first season and made more strides at the start of the current campaign.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel noted those improvements in a press conference ahead of the meeting with Freiburg in September, per Dortmund-based writer Stefan Buczko:

Tuchel on Bürki: "He doesn't feel like the Freiburg keeper playing for Dortmund anymore, but as goalkeeper of Borussia Dortmund." #bvbscf

— Stefan Buczko (@StefanBuczko) September 22, 2016

Having grown as a personality, Burki proved an important anchor in a BVB side that suffered from near-constant changes to the defensive personnel because of an injury crisis earlier in the season.

He has not made a big mistake leading to a goal for the opposition all season and put together arguably the best performance of his career in a 5-1 win over VfL Wolfsburg, also in September. The scoreline notwithstanding, Burki was clearly the man of the match.

Whether it was his tightening of angles in one-on-ones, flying saves against shots from range or a magnificent double stop against Julian Draxler and Mario Gomez, Burki saved his team a number of times in a game that could have ended in an incredible 5-5 draw or even a Wolfsburg win.

In the post-match press conference, Tuchel lauded his development "as a person, as a character, as a goalkeeper and as a player."

Sebastian Wessling of local paper WAZ (link in German) identified the Swiss as one of the winners of the season so far in October, and it is hard to argue against that notion. Burki has not only cut out mistakes between the sticks, he also looks more assured with the ball at his feet.

That area of his game is what Dortmund may well miss the most until he returns after the winter break. Roman Weidenfeller is a capable back-up, but he is an old-fashioned goalkeeper, with strengths on the line and in one-on-ones, but not as a ball-player in the buildup phase.

The 36-year-old has not eclipsed a 70 per cent pass-completion rate in any of the last seven Bundesliga seasons, per WhoScored.com. Burki, on the other hand, completes about 73 per cent of his passes for the Black and Yellows.

He is simply more comfortable when defenders involve him in the team's buildup play than Weidenfeller, who tends to panic and smash the ball away as quickly as he can, often leading to the opponent winning a throw-in inside Dortmund's half.

The Black and Yellows have struggled initiating plays from their own defensive third with Burki this season, so it seems safe to say they will suffer even more with Weidenfeller between the sticks.

This injury could push Tuchel to stay with the back three he has used in the last two wins over Hamburger SV and Bayern, with Matthias Ginter and Marc Bartra capable passers from the centre-back position. Giving Weidenfeller more targets for short passes would be a solid strategy.

Other than on the ball, Dortmund should be fine with the veteran in goal. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner has yet to start showing his age, as it seems reduced playing time over the last two seasons has kept him fresh.

He lost his regular starting spot to Australian Mitchell Langerak for parts of the 2014/15 season before becoming Burki's back-up when Tuchel took over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2015.

Date	Opponent	Venue
Nov. 22	Legia Warsaw	Home
Nov. 26	Eintracht Frankfurt	Away
Dec. 3	Borussia Monchengladbach	Home
Dec. 7	Real Madrid	Away
Dec. 10	Cologne	Away
Dec. 16	Hoffenheim	Away
Dec 20	Augsburg	Home

Weidenfeller was the hero in the Ruhr side's dramatic penalty-shootout escape against 2. Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin in the DFB-Pokal in October, magnificently saving two attempts despite never being known for being much of a spot-kick stopper.

Some believed that would be his last big hurrah, given his age and contract status, with his deal coming up at the end of the season. The club has since announced they will hold talks with Weidenfeller over a possible extension and plan to keep him around after he hangs up his boots, per German sport magazine Kicker (h/t Stephan Uersfeld of ESPN FC).

Weidenfeller will now likely get the chance to hit a milestone in his club career. Already the player with the second-most Bundesliga matches in Dortmund history behind today's sporting director Michael Zorc, per Uersfeld, the 36-year-old will make his 450th appearance for the Black and Yellows in the cup against Hertha BSC in February 2017 if he plays in all seven games before the winter break.

His vast experience will come in handy in those seven matches, as they all are important for Dortmund.

UEFA Champions League meetings with Legia Warsaw and Real Madrid, away from home at the Santiago Bernabeu, will determine the winner of Group F. The Ruhr side hold a two-point advantage over Los Blancos and hope to avoid the most difficult draws in the round of 16.

In the Bundesliga, Dortmund will face no fewer than three sides that are level on points with them after 11 matchdays in Eintracht Frankfurt, Cologne and 1899 Hoffenheim.

Home games against struggling Borussia Monchengladbach and Augsburg have to be considered must-wins if Tuchel's men want to keep up with RB Leizpig and Bayern at the top of the table.

Dortmund fans can count themselves fortunate their team has such a capable, battle-tested back-up goalkeeper ready to take over in Weidenfeller, but the loss of Burki is one that still will be felt.

He is the clear-cut No. 1 for a reason.

                       

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

Borussia Dortmund won the biggest game the Bundesliga has to offer each year on Saturday evening, beating perennial champions Bayern Munich 1-0 at home in Westfalenstadion. With their win, the Black and Yellows moved to within three points of the Bavarians and pushed promoted side RB Leipzig to the top of the table.

Even though Bayern dominated the match for the last 60 minutes, one cannot call Dortmund's victory undeserved. For all their command over the game, Carlo Ancelotti's men created next to no clear-cut scoring chances.

Midfielder Xabi Alonso hit the crossbar on the hour mark, his brilliant effort from distance making goalkeeper Roman Burki perform an involuntary mannequin challenge as the Switzerland international could only look on in the hope of the ball not finding the net.

Other than that, though, the Black and Yellows managed to keep the visitors at bay. "We did allow Bayern a few half-chances towards the end, but very few gilt-edged chances—perhaps none at all," head coach Thomas Tuchel told German broadcaster Sky after the match, per the club's official website.

A look at the expected-goals map, provided by football writer Michael Caley, confirms the 43-year-old's analysis of the game:

xG map for Der Klassiker. Dortmund played an excellent match without the ball, limited Bayern to volume with little quality. pic.twitter.com/GIh3LeSMXn

— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) November 19, 2016

Tuchel naturally was delighted with his team's efforts against the league leaders. "You need to hold your ground," he told Sky. "That was our motto. No matter what happens, no matter how much we are struggling: never give up, keep giving support, always remain brave and continue to defend."

What he meant by that was that it would take a team effort to inflict a first Bundesliga defeat on Bayern under Ancelotti's rule, and that was just what Tuchel got from his players.

Not one of the 14 men used in the game took the day off. Dortmund got big efforts from all of them.

To illustrate that, ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko rated only two of their players, Lukasz Piszczek and Andre Schurrle, at six out of 10, and no one higher than eight out of 10. It was a true group effort from a team working as a cohesive unit.

Whether it was the aggression of defensive leader Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who physically dominated the matchup with the imposing Robert Lewandowski throughout the 90 minutes, or the intelligence of Matthias Ginter, who had the awareness to play Franck Ribery offside when the Frenchman scored in the 55th minute—the defence held its ground.

And whether it was Marcel Schmelzer's relentless work against the ball or Julian Weigl's intelligent movement to fill the holes before the back line—the midfield, while ceding possession to Bayern, worked diligently.

Finally, whether it was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's incredible speed running rings around Mats Hummels or Adrian Ramos' strong work as a target man up front—Dortmund's two strikers were a constant nuisance to Bayern's world-class back line.

"It was a really hard match for us," Aubameyang said, again per Dortmund's website. "But the whole team worked very, very hard for this victory. It's exactly for that reason that we deserved to win."

The Gabonese, of course, scored the only goal of the match after just 11 minutes, poking home a brilliant assist from Mario Gotze. Aubameyang "also missed a couple of chances, as he terrorised the Bayern centre-halves with his pace and intelligent movement," as Alex Richards noted for the Mirror.

If one player deserves special recognition for his performance, though, it is Gotze. The 24-year-old needed a strong showing in a game with this big an audience, not because he had played poorly, but to change the narrative.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner was up for the challenge right away, as evidenced by his first foul coming within 15 seconds. For a player that is often considered a bit soft and more aesthete than working bee, Gotze put in a lot of defensive work in a demanding role.

Per the Yellow Wall's Constantin Eckner, he "received the order to move to the middle during Dortmund’s first phase of pressing. There he switched between marking Xabi Alonso and Thiago [Alcantara]." 

Gotze had to cover a lot of ground in that role, explaining why he tailed off in the second half, but effectively "neutralised Bayern’s control centre for quite some time," as Eckner pointed out.

Bayern's passing map confirms that observation. The visitors had a lot of the ball in central zones of the pitch but were not able to convert that dominance into penetration, playing the ball horizontally rather than vertically in midfield:

#FCBayern did a lot of passing, but it's telling that Boateng-to-Lewa was their most succesful route to get the ball forward.#passmap pic.twitter.com/ANhRHywX50

— 11tegen11 (@11tegen11) November 19, 2016

That Gotze also provided the assist to Aubameyang's winner, his first contribution to a league goal since his return to the Westfalenstadion, was the icing on the cake of a strong, mature performance from a player who seems to have settled into a new role nicely.

The 24-year-old is more central midfielder than attacker in his second stint in the Ruhr valley. "The boyish smile has been replaced with a more serious outlook, partly down to his experience in Bavaria," Richards noted. "But this may well have been the definitive beginning of Gotze's second coming."

Of course, the fact his assist came through the legs of Hummels, who was met with a chorus of boos in his return to the Westfalenstadion after a summer move to Bayern, was not lost on Dortmund fans:

#Magic pic.twitter.com/9hjhbBf0Cd

— Brandtčić (@Brandtcic) November 19, 2016

Gotze deserves every bit of the praise coming his way after the win over the Bavarians, but so does Tuchel.

He abandoned many of the principles he has established during his time at Dortmund, perhaps taking a page out of Jurgen Klopp's playbook to finally get over the hump against Bayern.

His side came out with far more aggression than in the most recent meetings with the Bundesliga champions, putting a lot of pressure on Ancelotti's men. Tuchel's lineup decisions reflected that, as Dortmund started with a 3-5-2 formation they had never played before.

With two strikers and and Gotze and Schurrle playing in central roles behind them, the hosts had immediate access to the middle zones of Bayern, forcing them into inaccurate plays in the buildup phase.

Aubameyang and Ramos kept running at Hummels and Jerome Boateng in the heart of defence, not allowing them any time to pick out their deadly long passes, while Gotze and Schurrle took care of Alonso and Thiago. 

The first 25 to 30 minutes, as a result, were dominated by Dortmund's pressing, which gave them the lead and the feeling that Bayern could be beat on the day.

"It was clear from the beginning that Dortmund could not keep up that degree of intensity until the final whistle," Eckner correctly pointed out, and Tuchel ordered his team to retreat into a compact defensive block Bayern were unable to penetrate with any kind of regularity.

Dortmund played with a back five throughout the second half, with Schurrle and Ramos moving further out wide, giving the team outlets for counter-attacks with the pace of those two and, especially, Aubameyang a constant threat to a Bayern side that committed many men forward in chase of an equaliser.

Tuchel then countered Ancelotti's only tactical variation, with Erik Durm coming on about 10 minutes after Douglas Costa entered the pitch for Bayern. Durm tracked the athletic Brazilian as a left-sided wing-back in his season debut and, together with Schmelzer at full-back, neutralised Costa effectively.

Despite a strong maiden campaign for Dortmund, Tuchel has been criticised for two things in particular, namely his in-game coaching and his big-game coaching. By outclassing a coach as successful as Ancelotti, the 43-year-old made a statement.

Ancelotti denkt er het zijne van..#bvbfcb https://t.co/DWlFwDZPFy pic.twitter.com/lrI398Tm4P

— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) November 19, 2016

With an unorthodox tactical plan working out brilliantly and the team putting together a complete and cohesive performance, Dortmund's win over Bayern was anything but undeserved.

It can reshape the season for the Black and Yellows, who would have been in an awkward position had they dropped to nine points behind both the Bavarians and Leipzig at the top of the table.

The team has shown this season they can hang with the big boys, but now it is time to show they can also take care of business with more regularity in games they are firmly expected to dominate and win.

If they find more consistency in those matches, Dortmund may even have a chance to win the Bundesliga title this season. On the evidence of Saturday and, really, the first 11 matchdays in general, Bayern look beatable for a change.

                          

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

Borussia Dortmund are set to be without Marco Reus when they face Bayern Munich on Saturday after the player picked up a problem in his heel.

Per German outlet Derwesten.de (h/t ESPN FC's Stephan Uersfeld), the club said in a statement: "He has minor heel problems. We don't want to take any risks following his long injury layoff."

According to Uersfeld, Bayern boss Carlo Ancelotti gave his sympathies to Reus: "That's tragic indeed. An injury is never nice. Reus is a fantastic player. But I think that Dortmund have the option to play other good players."

Reus has spent the last six months out of action with an adductor muscle injury.

The midfielder has a lengthy and chequered injury history. It's a career-long issue that cost him a place in Germany's UEFA Euro 2016 campaign last summer.

At the time, national-team boss Joachim Low bemoaned Reus' misfortune, per Bundesliga expert Clark Whitney:

https://twitter.com/Mr_Bundesliga/status/737596447059644418

As Norwegian journalist Jan Aage Fjortoft pointed out, it wasn't the first time fitness woes cost Reus on the international stage:

Wow! Löw NOT taking Marco Reus to the Euros!!!! Injured again. He missed the World Cup as well. Feel so sorry for him

— Jan Aage Fjørtoft 🇳🇴 (@JanAageFjortoft) May 31, 2016

There's no denying a fully fit Reus is a top-quality attacker. He combines pace, flair and intelligence with a keen eye for goal. Those attributes saw the 27-year-old score 20 goals across all competitions for Dortmund last season, per ESPN FC.

His true value, though, may be his versatility. At his best, Reus can thrive anywhere along the forward line, on either flank or through the middle.

Reus is an embodiment of the modern German footballing style, as a technically gifted player who also works hard off the ball. A tireless runner, he relentlessly presses the opposition to ensure fast transitions from defence to attack.

His flexibility, work rate and pace make him the perfect foil for astute passers who can split defences between the lines. That's the type of game Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel favours, and it's also what Low preaches at international level.

Reus is an exceptional talent, but his inability to stay fit is in danger of costing him what should be an illustrious career.  

Borussia Dortmund fans have every reason to be happy with what head coach Thomas Tuchel has done so far at the Westfalenstadion.

The 43-year-old took on the difficult task of replacing a legend in Jurgen Klopp and ran with it, imprinting his ideas of football on largely the same group of players his predecessor had coached for many years in his first campaign.

Where Klopp failed, Tuchel succeeded. He managed to turn a side that liked to play as the underdog into one that can dominate most opponents with relative ease. When running on all cylinders, the Black and Yellows suffocate even the best-organised, deepest-sitting defensive units.

Even this season, as the results are lacking a bit, which most would explain with the wholesale changes the club had to apply to their squad in the summer transfer window, Tuchel has done a fine job.

Given the lack of personnel options an injury crisis left him with and, as this writer argued in an earlier piece, perhaps a poor appropriation of transfer funds leaving the team vulnerable in the middle of the park, a bumpy start was to be expected.

Having said that, there is one major gripe that fans can have with Tuchel's Dortmund to this point. The Ruhr side, it seems, cannot win the biggest matches. That should change on Saturday, when they host Bayern Munich for the newest installment of the game they call Der Klassiker—overseas much more so than in Germany, by the way.

Dortmund were, for example, considered favourites to come away with the UEFA Europa League trophy last season, before a stunning collapse saw them drop out of the competition following a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Klopp's Liverpool in the quarter-finals.

Master outcoached pupil in that game, if you like.

"In reaction to Liverpool’s heightened attacking focus, Dortmund sat deeper and deeper and placed little pressure on the opposition in deeper spaces," tactics blogger Tom Payne wrote for Spielverlagerung.com. "The hosts dominated the counterpressing and could restart many attacks immediately after a clearance whilst Dortmund’s ability to maintain possession was nowhere to be seen against opposition pressing."

If this defeat was not the defining moment of an otherwise impressive maiden campaign under the former Mainz 05 boss, it was perhaps the DFB-Pokal final against Bayern in May, or rather, the penalty shootout that would decide the outcome of it.

Dortmund had defended bravely against Pep Guardiola's side, especially considering defensive leaders Marcel Schmelzer and Mats Hummels had to leave the pitch early, leaving Tuchel with a makeshift back line for the entire extra-time period.

However, the Black and Yellows failed to give themselves an outlet going forward and subsequently created next to nothing in front of Manuel Neuer's goal, as Tuchel criticised after the match.

"This match gives you a lot to think about," he said, per the club's official website. "We still need more belief in ourselves and determination when we are in possession. We did work very hard and we defended with passion. But you also need to give yourself a breather when you are in possession, we did not have enough of those."

Then-team captain Hummels echoed these thoughts in an interview with Matthias Dersch of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (link in German), saying Dortmund lacked the conviction and courage to play out of the back against Bayern's aggressive pressing.

Seeing as it was a final, many will have expected Dortmund to be a little more daring going forward. Relying on penalties is a poor strategy, and the Black and Yellows learned that the hard way, with defenders Sven Bender and Sokratis Papastathopoulos missing their attempts after being the best BVB players during the 120 minutes of open play.

Not only was it Dortmund's fourth consecutive defeat in finals after the 2013 UEFA Champions League final at Wembley and three cup finals in Berlin, it was also the third time Tuchel failed to beat Bayern with the Ruhr side.

A 5-1 battering in October 2015 was followed up by a thrilling goalless draw in March, a match after which Tuchel faced some criticism for his tactics, with many arguing Dortmund should have gone all out for the win to get back into the title race—it would have cut Bayern's advantage to only two points at the time.

Deutsche Welle's Ross Dunbar, for example, tweeted that he was "disappointed Tuchel didn't take a gamble towards the end":

@heynckelpott Yup, I was disappointed that TT didn't take a gamble towards the end.

— Ross Dunbar (@rossdunbar93) March 5, 2016

The 43-year-old had surprisingly included full-back Erik Durm in his starting XI, giving Dortmund a solid five-man back line against Guardiola's usually dominant Bayern, but also robbing his team of some much-needed creativity in midfield, with both Shinji Kagawa and Nuri Sahin on the bench for 90 minutes.

Fans will not be happy if Dortmund again choose to sit back and defend for their life against the Bavarians on the weekend. They are already six points behind Bayern in the standings, and even if only a few optimists expect them to challenge for the Bundesliga title, being out of the running before the turn of the year would be a bitter pill to swallow.

Luckily for the Black and Yellows, Bayern seem to be a few notches below the form they showed under Guardiola. Carlo Ancelotti's somewhat questionable domestic record with only three championships in 18 years at elite European clubs, per Miguel Delaney for ESPN FC, does not seem like a fluke.

Even though his side top the league together with promoted side RB Leipzig, Bayern have dropped points in three matches and looked suspect in one or two more.

Before the November international break, 1899 Hoffenheim escaped the Allianz Arena with a 1-1 draw. "In the first half, we once again received confirmation that this team is struggling against opponents with an aggressive pressing," Bayern blogger Christopher Ramm noted for MiaSanRot.com.

To be fair, the perennial German champions could have won the match with a barrage of chances late in the game.

"It is more than fair to doubt Bayern’s current system," Justin Kraft wrote for the same blog after a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt earlier in the season. "Ancelotti’s biggest issue still is the lack of a proper structure. It was far too easy for Frankfurt to attack Bayern’s positions, gaining control in midfield."

Those two games should serve as a blueprint for Tuchel and Dortmund. If they manage to put pressure on Bayern early and often, they, unlike Hoffenheim and especially Frankfurt, have the individual quality to inflict a first league defeat on Ancelotti in Germany.

Dortmund's personnel situation has relaxed dramatically. Tuchel will miss only long-term absentees Sven Bender, Erik Durm and Neven Subotic; other than that, he has the agony of choice the club had in mind when they strengthened the team's depth in the summer.

The 43-year-old can go with his preferred four-man back line thanks to the return of Schmelzer or, as this writer alluded to in an earlier piece, opt for a back three that would give Dortmund more presence in midfield and help in the buildup phase.

Up front, he will not be forced to play with two teenagers on the wings, as Andre Schurrle should feature from the start. One of the more experienced players on the team, the 2014 FIFA World Cup winner will be important both in the final third and tracking back, presumably helping out against regular Dortmund-killer Arjen Robben defensively.

Even Marco Reus could make his season debut, having overcome a muscle injury that kept him out of Euro 2016 and the entire campaign so far. If nothing else, bringing the No. 11 on from the bench could serve as a morale boost at some stage in the second half.

Given his replenished options and Bayern's being a tad below their best form this season, there will be no excuses for Tuchel. He needs to get his tactics right and come away with a result.

Dortmund have to get over the hump in big matches, starting Saturday.

                           

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.

International breaks can produce strange effects. In today's hectic news cycle, the absence of actual games at club level allows other stories to come to the forefront.

For Borussia Dortmund, the news of track and field superstar Usain Bolt potentially joining up with the Black and Yellows for training sessions seemed like a joke at first.

Decca Aitkenhead of the Guardian reported that the Jamaican is serious about his aspirations to become a footballer, despite already being 30 years old: "He has been in touch with Borussia Dortmund’s coach, will soon train with the team in Germany for a couple of days 'and see what happens'."

The Ruhr side has since confirmed that the fastest man in history will indeed try his luck on the football field:

“It’s no joke”—Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has confirmed Usain Bolt is coming to train with the #Bundesliga side ⚡ pic.twitter.com/iY9XS5SCBC

— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 14, 2016

Of course, this is a marketing stunt, as Bolt is sponsored by Puma, which is not only Dortmund's kit manufacturer but also a minority shareholder of the club, per its official website. 

"Of course he won't visit us in an important week with [UEFA] Champions League matches, but maybe in the preseason," chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke told German tabloid Sport Bild (h/t ESPN FC). "We are delighted and take this as an honour."

Seeing the fastest attack in football with Bolt and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining forces for Dortmund remains a pipe dream for fans and FIFA players.

It seems much more realistic that the Gabonese striker will welcome a midfielder as a new team-mate in the winter transfer window, with Bild (link in German) reporting that the Black and Yellows are offering €15 million plus Nuri Sahin for Borussia Monchengladbach's Mahmoud Dahoud.

Now, the proportion of reported player-plus-cash deals between clubs and those that come to fruition when the transfer window opens is slight, but whether this specific report is true or not, Dortmund should be interested in signing Dahoud in January.

The 20-year-old has been linked with a move away from Monchengladbach for months, with Goal.com's Melissa Reddy reporting interest from Dortmund, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur as early as April.

Dahoud burst on the scene last season, emerging as one of the most talented central midfielders in the Bundesliga during his first full senior campaign at Borussia Park, scoring five and assisting nine goals in 32 matches in the German top flight, per Transfermarkt.

He has, however, not endured the greatest of starts to the current campaign, having played in only 10 of the club's 18 games across all competitions with just four starts in the Bundesliga. 

"Apparently, Andre Schubert wants to slow down the hype train," sportswriter Constantin Eckner told Bleacher Report when asked about Dahoud's lack of playing time. "Gladbach's head coach has said several times that the 20-year-old is still in an early developmental phase in his career."

Gladbach fan and podcaster Younis Sultan, meanwhile, assumed it was down to "Dahoud's being young and inexperienced at a time when Gladbach are in a rut and desperately need results," noting also that "Granit Xhaka's departure meant that he has been mixed and matched with different partners, but none quite click yet."

Whatever Schubert's reasoning is, it seems an odd strategy given the midfielder played so well last season and the distinct void in Schubert's midfield following the sale of Xhaka to Arsenal. Dahoud gave one of his best performances in perhaps the biggest game of his young career, a Champions League meeting with Barcelona in late September.

The Syria-born youngster proved his qualities as an all-round midfielder with a complete performance, showing excellent technical abilities paired with the necessary aggression to win the ball against the Blaugrana's incredible talent in the middle of the park.

He was instrumental in Gladbach's goal, first winning the ball against Sergio Busquets before playing a perfect assist to Thorgan Hazard, as shown in the video below (from the 2:20 mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZ9gfJK2IE

"Dahoud is at his best when he is supposed to connect the two major parts of his team," Eckner explained. "This central midfielder/trequartista hybrid role suits him very well. He possesses a wide range of passing variations and setups for his dribbles."

The 20-year-old is a creative playmaker but also has the required engine to make runs between the boxes. "Carrying the ball forward and being inventive is where his best skills are," Sultan summarised.

"He can smoothly switch between his left and right foot," Eckner said. "He can dynamically penetrate the Zone 14"—that is the hole behind a striker—and "he is able to come at a defence from so many angles."

Perhaps most importantly, Eckner pointed out Dahoud "has the ability to make his team-mates look good. Does this remind you of a certain former Dortmund playmaker?"

With that, he meant Ilkay Gundogan, of course. This writer argued that the Black and Yellows have failed to replace the Germany international in the summer and suffer from it, so signing Dahoud in the January transfer window would make a lot of sense.

Even though it is debatable whether the 20-year-old could be entrusted with all the strategic responsibilities Gundogan carried during his time at the Westfalenstadion, Dahoud would give the club a supremely talented central midfielder to pair with Julian Weigl for years to come.

Eckner described the Gladbach man's potential: "Depending on who you ask, his ceiling is somewhere between Nuri Sahin and Paul Pogba. What happens in the next few years will be very important. Does he become more tactically sound without losing his creativity? Does he get the exposure on the pitch he needs to develop? If that’s the case, the sky is the limit."

Dortmund were always going to struggle finding a replacement on Gundogan's level. The 26-year-old is a world-class midfielder who was only held back by injuries; his flying start for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City proves as much. Players of that calibre are not only rare but also virtually unattainable for a club of Dortmund's size and financial standing.

Dahoud would give the Black and Yellows perhaps the best chance to develop the next world-class midfielder themselves. Crucially, the Germany under-21 international knows both the language and the league, which should make for a swift integration into the squad.

Signing him in January would be shrewd, even though he is cup-tied in the Champions League and can reportedly leave Gladbach in the summer with a release clause valued at a mere €10 million, per Sport Bild (link in German).

Sultan told B/R he does "not think they are preparing for life without him, but I do think they are resigned to losing him. It has been Gladbach's model to buy or develop young players and turn over transfer value. Mo Dahoud is not the first and will not be the last."

International competition, be it Liverpool, Spurs or other clubs, could be taken aback by Dahoud's lack of playing time this season so far and hold off from an attempt to sign the 20-year-old in January, giving Dortmund a leg up on them.

The Ruhr side, meanwhile, would welcome another huge talent in their team. The creative midfielder would give head coach Thomas Tuchel more tactical options, as the 43-year-old has so far struggled filling the Gundogan void with the personnel at his disposal.

Even if that only applies to the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal Cup, Dahoud would be a worthy investment in January. There is no discernible drawback in attempting to make the transfer happen six months early.

                            

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.