The change of coach at BVB has brought nothing. Therefore, the criticism is now directed against the team. Are the leading players really to blame for the misery?
Borussia Dortmund wanted to dispute the German championship with FC Bayern. Now the deficit on the series champions is already 13 points after 18 Bundesliga match days. The title is gone, instead it’s all about qualifying for the Champions League, i.e. fourth place.
The change of coach from Lucien Favre to Edin Terzic? Fizzled out! After the 2: 4 at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday it already seems clear that Terzic will hardly continue as head coach beyond the end of the season. From his first seven league games as a BVB coach, the 38-year-old native Borussia only got ten points. Thomas Doll was last less successful in 2007.
For t-online columnist Stefan Effenberg it was already clear before the defeat at Gladbach that Borussia’s big problem was not to be found in the coaching bench, but on the field. The main responsibility, according to Effenberg, lies with the leading players, who have to lead the way with top performance and mentality. He wrote in his column: “Bürki, Reus, Hummels and Delaney – these players are now playing on probation until the end of the season. Sports director Michael Zorc and licensed player boss Sebastian Kehl have to take a very close look at whether these are the right leaders for the next two or three years – or just not. “
The longer the crisis goes on, the more inevitable it seems at BVB that there will be a change in the summer, which will be closely linked to the question:
Are the leading players at Borussia Dortmund responsible for the crisis?
Florian Wichert
Deputy Editor in Chief
Pro
Yes, it’s not right in the hierarchy
Seven defeats in 18 Bundesliga games, three of them in just six games under the new coach Edin Terzic. This balance reveals: Dortmund is mediocre instead of a candidate for the championship. And: Dortmund has a management problem! That is not on the coaching bench, otherwise the move from Favre to Terzic would have brought something.
Dortmund’s biggest worries: The lack of coordination on standards, which led to eleven goals conceded and thus most in the league – and the lack of determination. Both on the defensive and on the offensive, when the opponent has decoded Plan A and the top talents are helpless.
The leading players are in demand on all of these points. Organize, lead the way, act decisively and lead, especially when things go bad – but they do that far too rarely. Reus is not a born captain, Hummels is more consistent with his public criticism of teammates off the field than on the field – and there are more would-be leaders than real leaders. Roman Bürki, Thomas Delaney, Thomas Meunier or Emre Can stand in their own way with their changeable performances.
BVB will make some tough decisions in the summer – and have to bring in new players who lead better.
Contra
BVB has great leading players – the mistake lies elsewhere
Top players like Mats Hummels and Marco Reus have been playing in the elite class of German football for many years. They both have long since proven how important they can be for their teams. Dortmund’s problem is not the deserved leadership players. The fault lies elsewhere.
With Jude Bellingham, Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Giovanni Reyna and Youssoufa Moukoko, BVB relies heavily on highly talented but extremely young footballers. But you can’t expect to be at the forefront or even win titles with such a group peppered with top talent, that’s crazy.
They lack the experience. And young professionals experience strong fluctuations in performance in their first seasons. When there are many of these talents in the roster, these fluctuations are also common. This is exactly what BVB is currently experiencing. Even the leading players cannot change that.
Before talking about whether Hummels and Reus are still the right professionals for the team, the BVB bosses should rather think about their own transfer policy with a focus on talent.
Dortmund doesn’t need any other leading players – they just need more of them.
Who is right?
In the “duel of the week”, Florian Wichert (Deputy Editor-in-Chief at t-online) and Robert Hiersemann (Head of Football and Sport) comment on current football topics every week.
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