As a club that receives over 80,000 passionate fans every home game and is run by an enigmatic coach who has become the envy of Europe, Bundesliga favourites Borussia Dortmund are currently experiencing a very bad turn of events in 2014/15.
BVB have already lost eight games so far this campaign, with a worrying goal-difference of -6. They are certainly not going to be challenging for the Bundesliga title this season, as that award seems to already have Bayern Munich’s name written all over it. The once invincible German side currently sit 14th in the table after propping up the league twice already in 2014/15.
How can a team go from imperious domestic champions and Champions League finalists to this current state of affairs?
One factor behind this dramatic decline has been the Bundesliga’s cruel transfer activity in recent years. Largely at the hands of arch rivals Bayern Munich, the loss of star talents, Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski, have been huge for Jurgen Klopp and have sent subsequent shockwaves throughout the mind-set of rest of his squad. How are Dortmund’s remaining stars going to stay focussed when they know that their team is literally falling apart around them?
The BVB players also share a slice of this blame, as bad career choices haven’t helped Dortmund either. The likes of Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa have opted to move away from the club that saw them breakthrough in recent years, only to return to the Signal Iduna Park once their supposed transfer dreams didn’t go as well as planned. This has led to a dramatic lack of consistency in Klopp’s starting XI’s for BVB.
To make matters worse for Klopp, the Borussia Dortmund fitness team have had their work cut out for the past few years with the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, and more recently Marco Reus, being struck down with lengthy spells on the sidelines. As several of their other stars returned late from World Cup duty in the summer, Jurgen Klopp has had only the bare bones of his squad to work with during spells of this campaign.
The most remarkable aspect of Dortmund’s fortunes this season, however, has been their Champions League form. They won Group D with 13 points from six games. BVB have only lost one match, to Arsenal, and have impressively won four and drawn one, scoring 14 and only letting in four in the process. This raises an important question in regards to Borussia’s form this season; has Jurgen Klopp prioritised the Champions League over Dortmund’s domestic duties for 2014/15?
Whilst this may seem true on the surface, another more subtle factor may come into play here. It could be argued that after their initial Bundelsiga success when they first broke onto the scene, German teams may have now finally worked out how to best deal with Dortmund in the league. Several weaker sides, such as Hamburger SV and FC Koln, have profited from sitting back against BVB and hurting them on the counter-attack. For both Klopp and his loyal Yellow Wall, this has been nothing but frustrating.
As we are only in December, however, there is still time for Borussia Dortmund to perform a dramatic turnaround in form. Jurgen Klopp has already stated that he has ‘unfinished business’ at the club and it seems that the crazy German coach won’t be leaving the Signal Iduna Park any time soon. Perhaps a slight change in style that offers a new and fresh approach to winning Bundesliga games now needs to be picked up by Dortmund. Coupled with a stronger emphasis on league success and the return of many star names to the starting XI, BVB have every chance of moving on from this bad spell and rising up the Bundesliga.
