Whe freshness in person was not yet felt by Lukasz Piszczek when he boarded the charter plane to Rome with his team-mates from Borussia Dortmund on Monday shortly before ten. His eye was bloodshot, underneath the Polish defensive veteran, 35, had a little violet. “We’ll see if it’s possible,” he said – although looking could be problematic.
Piszczek got the finger of his opponent Stefan Posch in the eye during a duel in BVB’s 1-0 (0-0) in Hoffenheim and was driven to the hospital for treatment. On Sunday he was back on the training ground, but he couldn’t train.
“He was still a bit dizzy, but we hope that he will be ready for action on Tuesday,” said sporting director Michael Zorc. Piszczek’s experience could be valuable at tomorrow’s start of the Champions League at Lazio (9 p.m. / Sky).
Risk area premier class
Otherwise, Dortmund’s defensive team could face sensitive personnel bottlenecks: Manuel Akanji was only allowed to leave the quarantine on Saturday after his Covid 19 infection and did not fly. With Dan-Axel Zagadou, Nico Schulz, Marcel Schmelzer (all injured) and Emre Can (red suspension), coach Lucien Favre has four other candidates for his five-man defensive chain.
The Swiss will have to improvise in any case – although the marathon has only just started with six and a half English weeks, interrupted only by an international week in mid-November.
In Corona times, the premier class becomes a logistical and personnel challenge. The trips, sometimes to risk areas, the risk of further infections and the fact that it is hardly possible to train between the individual games – all this creates imponderables.
Favre calls for creative solutions
“We have to be creative and find the best solutions from game to game,” said Favre. At the Stadio Olimpico, Thomas Delaney, a trained midfielder, will probably help out in defense again. The Dane had already been substituted for Piszczek at Hoffenheim and did his job “very convincingly”, as Zorc explained.
The sporting director had already referred to Delaney’s versatility a month ago, also as an explanation for why BVB did not sign another defender – as Favre probably internally demanded. “Our squad has various alternatives,” Zorc said.
In contrast to Bayern, where coach Hans-Dieter Flick got various alternatives for different parts of the team shortly before the transfer window closed, the Dortmund team did not make any improvements. Not least because the effects of the corona pandemic have also led to a more cautious spending policy. “We never had a euro in debt for six years – until May. Now, of course, the big clubs are also hit, ”said club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke on ZDF.
BVB is missing up to 70 million euros
BVB calculates a minus of 50 to 70 million euros for the current season. This does not mean that existential hardships could threaten in the foreseeable future, even if there was another lockdown for professional football.
But if there is currently no careful management, and there would be a further delay or even a loss of television money, this could lead to further competitive disadvantages in the long term – compared to the international top clubs, which have other economic opportunities due to their investor models. In order to improve the financial basis in the long term, the listed BVB is even considering a capital increase, reported the “kicker”.
Hans-Joachim Watzke sees BVB well positioned
Quelle: Getty Images/TF-Images
So Favre has to get by with what he has available in his third BVB year. His repeatedly expressed wish for “two teams” in the sense of double appointments for each individual position could not be met. From Watzke’s point of view, this is not absolutely necessary. He is not sure whether the current squad is the “best BVB squad of all time”, as Uli Hoeneß recently said, “but at least I think it is one of the most ambitious”.
Offensive the showpiece
In fact, the quality of the Dortmund offensive in the Bundesliga – apart from Bayern Munich – is second to none. In Hoffenheim, Favre was able to substitute for victory with Erling Haaland and Marco Reus, who scored the only goal. In attack, the coach has many good opportunities to survive internationally.
The Dortmund team’s goal is to get back to the top of Europe in the premier class. What annoyed Borussia the most last season was not the fact that they finished second in the Bundesliga behind an overpowering FC Bayern, but the early exit in the round of 16 against Paris St. Germain.
It should have especially hurt the ambitious Watzke that RB Leipzig took part in the final tournament in Lisbon – but not BVB. The future of Favre, whose contract expires at the end of the season, could also be decided by the performance in the premier class.
“We have justified hopes that in our group (Lazio, Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Brügge, d. Red.) to get ahead, ”said licensed player director Sebastian Kehl. He is in good spirits that the most experienced Borussia will be there: Piszczek, who had already played in the 2013 Champions League final (1: 2 against Bayern). “That would alleviate our problems a little,” said Kehl.
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