Without Erling Haaland, not much comes together at BVB.
The Norwegian striker scored at will before his hamstring tear, but missed the last four Bundesliga games. The Norwegian will also not be able to play in the DFB Cup game at Eintracht Braunschweig (Tuesday, from 6 p.m. LIVE on TV on SPORT1).
In the second round of the DFB Cup, SPORT1 will show the duel between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Braunschweig on December 22nd from 6 p.m. LIVE on TV and in STREAM
Without Haaland, Dortmund only won one of the last four Bundesliga games and even slipped to fifth after losing 2-1 at Union Berlin at the end of the year. But the BVB engine is not only stuttering due to the lack of Haaland. Another “failure” hits Dortmund hard: Jadon Sancho.
Sancho a shadow of himself
The 20-year-old Englishman was only absent from the field in four games this season, but has mostly only acted as a shadow of himself since the summer. These are the weak numbers that show Sancho’s influence on the BVB offensive in his eleven games this season.
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In the Champions League he shone in the 3-0 win against Club Bruges with a fantastic free kick and a strong performance. Otherwise, his numbers are light years away from those who, in addition to the Haaland goals, were largely responsible for the runner-up in the past season.
For comparison: Sancho scored 17 goals and 17 assists in the last Bundesliga season. The attacking player scored his last goal in the top German division on May 31. Sancho has not scored 16 Bundesliga games.
In Berlin, the 20-year-old had a huge chance when he was perfectly staged in the 10th minute by Youssoufa Moukoko. But Sancho took the ball sloppily and then closed too centrally with his weaker left foot, so that Andreas Luthe was able to parry in the Berliner Tor.
A scene that is indicative of Sancho’s current situation at BVB. The Englishman occasionally gives the impression that he is not one hundred percent on the job, his dynamic runs with and without the ball have been a little lost in the season so far.
Terzic on Sancho: “There is no lack of commitment”
“We try to offer every player the best possible support. On the one hand, there are individual things in which the player has to improve. As a group, we also have to look at how we can support him better, get him into positions where we can he feels good, “said Terzic at the press conference before the cup game.
Terzic denied that Sancho was hanging. “The commitment with him is definitely not missing. He defends himself and absolutely wants to show everything. Currently, his ease and magic that we are used to are missing. We will give him the best possible support so that he gets these things back.”
But when will that be? Is the failed move in summer a reason for his problems? At the time, the Englishman was reportedly on the verge of a move back home, allegedly having reached an agreement with Manchester United. However, because BVB insisted on its transfer fee of 120 million euros, the move failed.
Physical and mental fatigue is also likely to play a role in Sancho’s sharp drop in performance. The tightly timed game plan has not left him without a trace. After the cup game, the BVB professionals get a few days off, but they don’t have much time to relax. On January 28th, Dortmund will meet again for the corona test, and training will start again one day later, before VfL Wolfsburg will be the first opponent of the year 2021 in Signal Iduna Park on January 3rd.
Sancho is not allowed to go home
Sancho has to do without the longed-for short vacation at home. “If I see the current situation correctly, a return to Germany is currently not possible. Therefore, we cannot allow our players to travel to England,” said sports director Michael Zorc before the game against Braunschweig.
Due to new mutations in the coronavirus, the federal government has banned flights from Great Britain to Germany, with a few exceptions. This ban applies at least until December 31st. Sancho is currently still likely to travel home, but when he could return to Germany is currently unclear. Some European countries have already closed their borders with Great Britain.
In the case of a longer stay in Great Britain, Sancho would not only be canceled at the beginning of the year, due to the hygiene regulations of the DFL, which provides for two PCR tests within a week with a maximum interval of five days during the game-free time, Sancho could not even return at the beginning of the year play again immediately. Dortmund simply cannot afford that.
The current developments are unlikely to have really contributed to improving Sancho’s state of mind. For Terzic, in addition to the known problems on the defensive, one of the most important tasks will be to get his superstar back on track.
Because the burden in the new year is hardly less. BVB could use a piece of Sancho’s “magic”.
