Debacle against Glasgow Rangers
It’s better not to trust Borussia Dortmund
By Stephan Uersfeld
2/18/2022 12:04 p.m
Borussia Dortmund still lacks consistency. After a 3-0 win at Union Berlin, they were beaten 4-2 out of their own stadium by Scottish representative Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League. Dortmund strays again through the season. How often is that good?
Norbert Dickel welcomed the guests from Glasgow before the game in the Dortmund stadium. Just not the Rangers, but the local rivals Celtic. Jude Bellingham was so hot he missed the lineup for the obligatory team photo. And after that it didn’t get any better. Borussia Dortmund lost the Europa League first leg against the representative from Scotland 4-2. BVB continues to drive everyone who sticks with them crazy. The 2:5 against Bayer Leverkusen was followed by the convincing 3:0 at Union Berlin and now this performance. Coach Marco Rose hadn’t even changed the team line-up after Berlin. Borussia Dortmund remains a team that cannot be trusted.
Pure, inexplicable chaos runs through the Dortmund season, with manic-depressive attempts to win the title, only to fall into shock, listlessness and deep melancholy the next moment. Those who are physically present on the pitch but offer everything to the opponent quarrel. Hertha BSC, FC St. Pauli, Bayer Leverkusen and Glasgow Rangers. The failures have been increasing in recent months and there is always only one logical explanation: system damage!
Something that can’t be easily fixed. An unbalanced squad in which Erling Haaland is replaced by Steffen Tigges, in which Nico Schulz, Julian Brandt, Thorgan Hazard and Emre Can are a total of 100 million euros misunderstanding and in which the central defender Marin Pongracic, who was committed at short notice, is only replaced by spectacular ones Appearances in Twitch live streams and the pitiful Dan-Axel Zagadou after a long period of injury naturally cannot be a defensive stabilizer. The leading figures Marco Reus and Mats Hummels usually only attract attention when they once again deliver a tough analysis of the mistakes.
The next transition year
“We play nonsensical football. You can sometimes win and sometimes lose,” Hummels summarized the performance against the Rangers. “But you’ll never be successful like that.” This is quite ruthless, but it mostly fizzles out without effect. “The coach addresses it, we don’t implement it in many positions. When do you play which passes, in which situations risk is good and where not?” Hummels seemed desperate again. The world champion is a man of clear words, but time has left its mark on him too. Sometimes his performance can keep up with his words, sometimes not. It is no different with captain Marco Reus, who was responsible for the 0: 2 on Thursday together with Julian Brandt.
Out of the cup, out of the Champions League, so inconsistent in the championship that Bayern can afford further phases of weakness, but also so constant that the following clubs will hardly knock Borussia out of the Champions League. The Europa League is Dortmund’s last chance for a conciliatory end to a season that, like so many years before, will go down in the club’s history as a year of transition. In the summer the squad will change and with sporting director Michael Zorc one of the faces of the club will retire.
Ex-captain Sebastian Kehl, his successor, faces a mammoth task. The question of coach Marco Rose, who has not managed to convey his game idea to the team, is already being asked. However, he also had little opportunity to shape the squad. Already last summer he had ideas that were ultimately not fulfilled. Rose could still fit into the long list of coaches who are ultimately overwhelmed by nostalgia for the past. BVB has not managed to define a path for itself that could signal a spirit of optimism in the club. But perhaps this is only possible with a great, important title and, above all, with a man-catcher. Rose isn’t, and he wasn’t hired for that. And things could always go on like this in Dortmund over the past decade.
There is only money in the Champions League
A failure in the Europa League would cause little financial damage in the short term. The losses caused by the pandemic are too high, the loss of income due to missing the knockout phase of the Champions League is too high. Qualifying for this competition, which is so vital for survival, and which BVB once even thought it worth taking out cancellation insurance, via the Bundesliga remains the main goal of the season. For another year at the financial troughs that mean the world.
For another year in the Champions League, from which BVB is ultimately as far away from winning as someone who hopes to win the multi-million euro jackpot week after week. The Europa League is just an image competition for BVB, it is not vital. The long-term damage from the European bankruptcies against Sporting Lisbon, against Ajax Amsterdam and now in the home game against Rangers is not foreseeable, but could be quite small.
What makes the situation hardly any better: This team can be trusted to turn things around in the coming weeks at Ibrox Stadium and move into the round of 16 of the Europa League with a convincing victory. There is no lack of individual quality, there is no lack of class to play against an opponent like Rangers in one day. But what would then be celebrated as a victory for mentality would in fact only be a signal for a brief pause in the erosion of the squad. It has progressed so far in Dortmund that a win will not stop. In Dortmund, there is still a threat of a bottom rupture that could eventually tear down the foundations of the club that have been built over the years.
BVB are not yet in the position of Werder Bremen, who were on par with Bayern for a long time in the 2000s, nor are they miles away from becoming Schalke, complete collapse. The situation at Borussia is much more comparable to that at Arsenal. After many gray years, they are slowly gaining a foothold again in the English Premier League, but in the foreseeable future there will hardly be any chance of building on the old successes. Arsenal and Dortmund are clubs living on their past but have barely made the leap into the 2020s. No good prospects for BVB.