Karim Adeyemi had a difficult preparation for the season and, like many of his teammates at Borussia Dortmund, is currently lagging behind the strong form of the first half of the year. It’s not the first time that the BVB offensive player’s work ethic has been criticized – which should give the 21-year-old more than enough to think about.
Matthias Sammer often speaks in very cluttered sentences, which are often about “constellations”, which he then explains in great detail. No question, Sammer’s analyzes on the subject of football are usually pretty to the point. However, following the numerous semi-clauses and subordinate clauses can sometimes be difficult.
It was therefore pleasantly simple to understand what Sammer, in his role as an expert at Prime Video, said against Paris Saint-Germain during the break in Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League game, where the 56-year-old also works as an external consultant: “What I don’t like at all, without naming it: the two in front,” Sammer began again in a slightly “classic” way, because the two in front could only be Donyell Malen and Karim Adeyemi.
“You can play bad passes. But get back into the basic order straight away. What I really dislike – when you make a mistake and say: I have to think about myself for a minute. Those are simply bad signals. That’s just not good and “This has to stop,” continued Sammer, visibly annoyed.
And he was right. Malen and Adeyemi delivered a scary performance, constantly losing the few balls that their teammates sometimes passed to them quite sloppily in the hope of relief, and after losing the ball they did not develop the necessary greed to get the ball back or at least to be compact in the game to create formation.
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BVB: Karim Adeyemi has not played a goal for Dortmund so far
Now, in the case of Malen, it must be noted that it was the Dutchman’s first really weak game this season. The 24-year-old currently has six goals in seven competitive games – by far the best score for BVB. For comparison: Adeyemi is at zero.
When it comes to Adeyemi, it is also fair to say that the 21-year-old did not have an easy summer. In the missed championship final against Mainz, he suffered another muscle injury, which, unlike his muscle injury in February, cost him seven and a half weeks instead of five. In addition, it came at the time of Dortmund’s already extremely complicated preparation, so that Adeyemi was far from a targeted build-up.
Unsurprisingly, this became noticeable quickly. Adeyemi initially only came off the bench and has not yet been able to make any lasting impression. Very similar to last year, when he only contributed two goals and one assist in the first half of the year after moving from Salzburg to BVB.
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BVB assistant coach about Karim Adeyemi: “Seriousness is missing”
What followed is known and was difficult to explain: Like the rest of Borussia, Adeyemi also achieved an unexpected explosion in performance and collected six goals and five assists in 13 Bundesliga games. BVB, who had a slow start to the season, needs this Adeyemi, who, thanks to his outstanding speed, offered good running routes into the depths, was surprisingly strong in the air and remained ice-cold in front of the goal – finesse and moments of surprise are currently missing everywhere .
“It’s not just Karim, it’s the same for everyone,” said coach Edin Terzic recently when asked about Adeyemi’s lack of form. “We know that there is still room for improvement. But we also know what we are capable of. It only works if we work hard in training and address things clearly.”
His assistant coach Armin Reutershahn had already done him this favor. He sat with Adeyemi at a BVB club media talk a month ago and didn’t hold back when it came to the offensive player’s work ethic: “Karim has all the skills you can and must have to become a top player in Europe. He isn’t one yet, but he can become one. But sometimes I just don’t have the seriousness. He’s very relaxed sometimes during training and I would like him to approach the matter even more seriously. If he understands that, he can do a lot become a great player.”
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BVB: That should give Karim Adeyemi more than enough to think about
When asked about this, Terzic also agreed: “Karim certainly hasn’t heard this for the first time. I can completely support Armin. There is incredible potential in Karim, but we know that there has to be some form of consistency and effectiveness. Karim knows that too that he can do so much more.”
It is very telling and should give Adeyemi more than enough to think about when established players like Sammer, the 63-year-old Reutershahn and his own coach feel compelled to do such public things. Last year, an equally established teammate, Mats Hummels, was upset with Adeyemi after he conceded a goal against Union Berlin: “Sometimes the simple 20-meter back pass is the best solution, even if it doesn’t come up on social media afterwards.”
When asked about the brother-light-footed attitude, Adeyemi said in response to Hummels: “No, I wouldn’t say that. Today we played a different formation, maybe that was the reason.” A different, but not dissimilar, situation occurred last year in Frankfurt, when Adeyemi clearly committed a foul on Jesper Lindström, but strangely denied it after the game, only to confess to the offense on Instagram a few days later.
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BVB advisor Sammer: “Don’t post any nonsense”
During his time in the youth departments of Bayern Munich and SpVgg Unterhaching, Adeyemi had already earned a reputation as a halloween with his negligence and indiscipline. So the tone for him has long been set, and even the four strong months during the last second half of the season cannot hide that.
For Adeyemi, the near future will also be about reputation. Once it’s ruined, it’s not only difficult to get out of the drawer, but especially in this industry. His relationship with a rapper, which was only made public a few months ago and who accompanies the couple very transparently, has already caused a lot of grumbling in the Dortmund environment given his performances so far in the current season.
The fact that the four-time national player was not nominated for Germany recently shows, less than a year before the European Championship in his own country, that an improvement in performance is needed as soon as possible in the club as well as in the DFB uniform. The game in Paris was a setback for Adeyemi; four days later, against Wolfsburg, he was on the bench for over 90 minutes for the first time since April.
“Welcome to the brutality of competitive sport. They did more today! They were more toxic, they accepted the duels,” said Sammer after Dortmund’s weak performance at PSG. And then said another sentence that was probably aimed at Adeyemi: “Please look at this, don’t post any nonsense, but follow the best.”
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BVB: Karim Adeyemi and his performance data at Borussia Dortmund
CompetitionGamesGoalsAssistmentsBundesliga2866DFB-Pokal21-Champions League72-
2023-09-27 10:08:57
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