BVB in the Bundesliga: When the target player only sits in the stands

Marco Rose didn’t want to spoil the weekend with too many details: “All in all, I was satisfied,” said Borussia Dortmund’s coach, summarizing his basic feeling after the 2-1 win against FC Augsburg. When coaches say something like that, it usually means that they didn’t like a lot. “It was a decent, very intense game,” said Rose, although against mediocre opponents you should get a good and, if possible, not exhausting game. In the third competitive game without striker Erling Haaland, who continues to complain about muscle problems in his thigh and also had to cancel the next World Cup qualifying rounds with his Norwegian national team, the Dortmund team struggled on Saturday with their too much effort and ultimately with the moderate successful exploitation of opportunities. The statisticians recorded 17: 8 shots on goal, but Raphael Guerreiros 1: 0 (10th) needed a penalty, caused against Donyell Malen, and Julian Brandt’s goal to make it 2-1 (53rd) required an undercover artificial shot. On the other hand, Borussia could only play a few chances against Augsburg. If everything doesn’t come down to the fast, massive Haaland in front, because he’s watching in the stands, a lot doesn’t seem powerful enough. Goal scorer Julian Brandt, who is back in the starting eleven at BVB thanks to the list of injuries and who rose to the top Dortmund with a lot of work and fine passes, brought up the current problem unerringly the formula: “If we put these things in, we won’t have such stress until the 90th minute.” However, Borussia only gave up really big opportunities twice, through Thorgan Hazard and Marco Reus. Augsburg was only able to score once through Andi Zeqiri (1: 1 / 35th) and otherwise struggled in vain to even penetrate Dortmund’s last zone. But for a top team, BVB was still not convincing in game control. And Julian Brandt’s formulation of “stress” up to the final whistle had above all to do with the lurking lack of concentration in the Dortmund defense.

The goal difference of 19:13 is not a good one Testimony for the defensive

Therefore, Marco Rose’s team failed again to avoid the obligatory goal conceded. Defensive standard situations remain a shaky thing, when the opponent wins the ball, the BVB defensive often takes a bit too long to sort itself out. So this time at 1: 1, when Augsburg’s Arne Maier first shot at the crossbar, and then Dortmund’s defenders were amazed to see that Zeqiri sank the rebound into the BVB goal. This susceptibility, which is clearly reflected in the goal difference of 19:13 after seven games, the new coach will have to stop at some point if his team is not to constantly waste more than 90 minutes of strength. Most recently in the Champions League against Sporting Lisbon they managed to keep a 1-0 win, but BVB had to fight bitterly until the last minute to keep all the points. After all, 40,000 spectators already provided support in the stadium this time. Defender Manuel Akanji was looking forward to even more visitors: “I can hardly wait to be able to play in front of a full house again.” The coach and his team can be credited with the fact that injuries in Rose’s optimization work are also affecting the office at the moment. In addition to Haaland, Reyna was still missing and Dahoud, who had been battered since last Tuesday, Brandt and the substitutes Can and Hazard have only recently returned. Against Augsburg, Marius Wolf, Thomas Meunier and Mats Hummels had to be substituted with severe injuries. The international break becomes an actual breather for several injured Dortmunders. Also the only 18-year-old new crowd favorite Jude Bellingham, where the audience meanwhile every ball contact with a loud “Djuuuuud!” fired, is allowed to take a break from the constant stress of the English national team. For trainer Rose and his BVB team, it is still difficult to further advance the self-evident and automatisms of the team, which is already strongly combining. It is already clear that it is a blessing and a curse to have such a dominant top scorer like Haaland. Its natural magnetism on the playing field means that almost all offensive processes concentrate on it. The Dutchman Malen, who was brought in to replace Jadon Sancho, had a strong performance against Lisbon. He also had his scenes against Augsburg, but Dortmund improvised without Haaland. That works because guys like Reus, Brandt, Bellingham or Malen always bring something to life in their individual creativity. But without Haaland, Dortmund is only a very good team, but not a world-class team.