Come the end of week 8 in the German Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund will find themselves in 6th place, at best, in the league table. Looking back to September, this must come as a surprise because Dortmund were wiping teams out, with their fast paced, attacking football.
A 6-0 win over Darmstadt 98, was followed by a 5-1 victory at Wolfsburg and a 3-1 home win over Freiburg. This was a Dortmund team which had fans on the edge of their seats and were looking capable of challenging Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga this season.
However, October has not been as kind to Thomas Tuchel’s team and a 2-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen, was followed by two draws, one at home to Hertha Berlin and the other, a thrilling 3-3 draw at Ingolstadt, where a last-minute goal was required to get a point.
The match at Ingolstadt was a tale of two halves, with Dortmund poor in the first, lacking any intensity in their play only to come out in the second half, to play well and claim a point. The ability is definitely there in this Dortmund squad, to play exciting football and compete with the best teams, in Europe, just look at the match against Real Madrid for example. Dortmund matched their opponents all the way, so why are they struggling in the Bundesliga now?
It could come down to experience and Tuchel was quick to point to this, following the 3-3 draw at Ingolstadt. A look at the transfer dealings in the summer, shows the departure of Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jakub Blaszczykowski, a group of players with huge amounts of Bundesliga experience. In addition to those departures, Marco Reus and Sven Bender have been injured, two players Dortmund would be relying upon to show their experience this season.
The players who have come into the club are very talented and include Ousmane Dembele, Emre Mor, Raphael Guerriero and Mikel Merino, players who are very young and lack experience of playing in the Bundesliga and Champions League, every week. Furthermore, youth players at the club, such as Matthias Ginter and Jule Weigl have been asked to carry a large burden in the team already this season, which is going to takes its toll.
Young players may have the ability to play at Champions League and Bundesliga level every three days but controlling the mental and physical side of the game is different and learning how to pace yourself throughout a hectic schedule of games, is tough.
As Tuchel said in his interview following the draw at Ingolstadt, Dortmund need to remain patient and support the players. There is no doubt the talent is there and when the likes of Marcel Schmelzer, Marco Reus, Neven Subotic, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Nuri Sahin and Eric Durm return to full fitness, Dortmund will have a great mix of youth and experience in their team.
This may not be their season but one look at the talent in this Bundesliga squad, shows a club who can make it to the top of German football and consistently challenge Bayern Munich.