Edin Terzic suspected that this question would come up again. He also answered it – but he asked that it really be asked of him for the last time. “I’ve said it several times over the past few weeks: We were unhappy with the outcome of last season, but we were incredibly happy with the reaction of our fans,” said the Borussia Dortmund coach when he again recalled the traumatic event on Thursday was addressed at the end of the previous season – just two days before the start of the new one.
On May 27, BVB gambled away the championship they thought was almost certain – by beating Mainz 05 2-2 in front of their home crowd. The images that followed are burned into my memory: Terzic and his players were crying on the pitch – the fans, who were at least as disappointed, tried to comfort them. From this, according to the coach, he and his team will “draw strength” and derive the responsibility to attack again.
This project begins on Saturday when 1. FC Köln come to Signal-Iduna-Park for the league opener (6.30 p.m., Sky). “Let’s look ahead and invest everything to be able to celebrate something big in the end. For that we need every single player and every single fan,” he appealed. The most exciting question is actually: Can the club draw new courage from failure?
Empty hands at the end of the season – after all, you can wave good with them
Quelle: dpa/Jan Woitas
Terzic is confident that this is possible. He is satisfied with the preparations for the season, in which six out of seven friendlies were won and the first round of the DFB Cup was mastered as expected (6-1 at regional league club Schott Mainz). Above all, however, he was “very satisfied with the quality of the team and also with the quality of the arrivals”. He didn’t want to let any doubts arise.
Manageable transfer activities
Because recently there had been discussions as to whether the squad was good enough for a renewed attempt towards the title – and, above all, broad enough. In contrast to last summer, when seven players were brought in in Niklas Süle, Nico Schlotterbeck, Salih Özcan, Sébastien Haller, Karim Adeyemi, Alexander Meyer and Anthony Modeste and improvements were made in winter (Julian Ryerson and Julien Duranville), they worked Recent transfer activity manageable: In Felix Nmecha, 22, and Marcel Sabitzer, 29, two new midfielders came, in Ramy Bensebaini, 28, a new full-back. Is that enough to compensate for the departures of Jude Bellingham, 20, after all one of the best midfielders in Europe, and all-rounder Raphael Guerreiro, 29? What if there are injuries and absences?
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Terzic is “convinced” of his current squad. Because the problems that the team had last season in the first half of the season and also occasionally in the overall strong second half of the season were not a question of quality, but rather one of consistency. It is important to achieve further improvements in terms of professionalism and unity. The team has to grow, further reinforcements could definitely be helpful – but the decisive factor will be whether the players succeed in developing a clearer awareness: When do I work against the ball? When do I fall behind? Despite all the progress, BVB still lacked the maturity for the title last season.
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On the way there, a changed hierarchy should also help. Long-time top performers like Mats Hummels and Marco Reus (both 34) have lost influence. Reus resigned as captain, Hummels is no longer on the team council. The new captain is Emre Can, 29, Terzic calls him a “leader” and a “born winner”. The deputies are Gregor Kobel, 25, and Süle, 27. The new team council is completed by Haller, 29, Julian Brandt, 27, and Reus. The new pecking order should also document this to the outside world.
Terzic and the BVB management, who trust this coach much more than many of his predecessors, want to continue on the path of last season. They are convinced that despite the disappointment at the end of the season there will be no break.
Only with Haller did the offensive break all records
The hopes rest primarily on Haller. For Terzic, the center forward is far more than just a goalscorer. He sees him as a difference player; as someone who ensures that the professionals who play alongside him also reach their performance limit. In fact, the Ivorian was the decisive factor in BVB’s ability to almost dethrone Bayern in the second half of the season. There were several reasons why it didn’t turn out that way in the end – but it wasn’t Haller’s fault. On the contrary: only with Haller, who was only able to play from January because of his cancer, did the offensive break all records: In the 2023 calendar year, BVB scored 59 goals in 19 league games, more than any other European team. With this average (3.1 goals per game) extrapolated for the season, there should hardly have been another champion than Dortmund.
“It’s attractive when you change sides,” says Sabitzer after moving to BVB
Marcel Sabitzer arrived at the training camp in the USA after moving to BVB. When he was introduced, the new signing from Dortmund sent a declaration of war directly to his former employer FC Bayern.
So the biggest fear is that Haller could possibly hurt himself. The squad is rather thin on the two full-back positions with Ryerson, Bensebaini and Marius Wolf, should Thomas Meunier leave BVB as planned. There isn’t much room for maneuver in central defense either (Süle, Hummels and Schlotterbeck).
But only Haller has no alternative in the squad, even if there are players in Donyell Malen, Karim Adeyemi and Youssoufa Moukoko who could play as a striker. But nobody has the format to replace Haller in the 4-1-4-1 system preferred by Terzic.
“It would be negligent if we didn’t concern ourselves with whether there isn’t one or the other player who is better at us, both at the top and at the bottom,” Terzic said this week. A week earlier it had become much clearer. There aren’t many players in the squad “who are over 1.80 meters,” he said. “And then we also know that if Sébastien stays healthy, he will most likely travel to the Africa Cup of Nations in winter,” said Terzic. The BVB coach seems to have been concerned about the prospect of this for half a year beforehand.
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