Opinion Dortmund in crisis
BVB coach Edin Terzic is in danger of failing
As of: 1:15 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
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Club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke wants to create an era with Edin Terzic – but if the BVB coach doesn’t initiate a turnaround quickly, this will likely remain a pipe dream. This weekend the team sent a fatal signal.
The team was sent off to the dressing rooms with loud whistles, the players were at a loss. “In the end it was chaos,” said Julian Brandt after the 2-3 home defeat against TSG Hoffenheim. It was BVB’s first defeat in the 2024 calendar year – but the way it came about was shocking.
Edin Terzic’s team acted so erratically and incorrectly that major concerns arose about the further course of the season: Is BVB, which can already be considered one of the biggest disappointments of the current Bundesliga season, still capable? to get the curve? Can qualification for the Champions League, the minimum goal, be achieved?
So far, the prevailing opinion has been: Yes, things are going rough, but it’ll work out somehow. But judging by the impression the team gave on Sunday, there are more than just doubts. Because what BVB delivers is not just weak in terms of play – it is now also extremely questionable mentally.
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Against TSG, who had not arrived with a single win in the last eight matchdays, Dortmund gave up a 2-1 lead through a series of tactical and individual errors. They lost the ball carelessly and were characterized by disastrous defensive behavior. The performance, especially in the second half, was a fatal signal to a psychologically damaged opponent, motto: There is something even for you here.
Terzic out at the end of the season?
There is something fundamentally wrong. Supposed top performers stand next to themselves. Captain Emre Can and Julian Ryerson play unclean passes, Nico Schlotterbeck misjudges badly in duels, Marco Reus seems uninspired. There is no positional discipline and sometimes hair-raising coordination problems. On Sunday, this hodgepodge of inadequacies was punished – but some of it had already been observed in several games in recent weeks. Sometimes more sometimes less.
Edin Terzić discusses with his assistant coaches Nuri Şahin and Sven Bender. Sports director Sebastian Kehl sits next to him
Source: AFP/INA FASSBENDER
The problems continue. In the first 16 games of the season, BVB conceded 25 goals. After the winter break, it initially looked as if at least the defense was stabilizing. In the first seven competitive games of the new year there were only three goals conceded, but the level of play remained manageable even against mostly weak opponents. On Sunday the dams broke again at the back – possibly because Mats Hummels was only able to come on as a late substitute due to stomach and intestinal problems. However, it would be a disgrace if weal and woe depended on someone who is now 35 years old.
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One thing is clear: the pressure on Edin Terzic has increased massively since Sunday. Unless a trend reversal is initiated quickly, it will be difficult to maintain beyond the end of the season. The attempt to support Terzic, in which he was given two new assistant coaches, Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender, at his side in the winter, is in danger of failing. Because little has improved in Dortmund since then.
