Record national player Lothar Matthäus takes Julian Brandt to task after Borussia Dortmund’s first away win in the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. The BVB vice-captain must follow the example of his DFB colleagues Jamal Musiala from FC Bayern and Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
“Brandt has to be for BVB what Wirtz in Leverkusen or Musiala are for FC Bayern,” demanded Lothar Matthäus in his column for “Sky” after Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 win at VfL Wolfsburg. The BVB star had just shown a top performance in the first half and, with the assist to make it 2-0 and the goal to make it 3-0, played a key role in setting the course for victory early on.
Matthäus also liked the fact that the 29-year-old was “leading the way verbally” and had demanded more consistency from himself and his team after such a trend-setting game. “But I also expect this development from him personally,” said the 63-year-old, who complained: “Too often, like other players, he is too inconsistent.” In contrast to Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, who will also be among the top performers on their teams in 2024/25.
At BVB, Brandt must therefore be “one of those people who pulls others along and leads the way.” Since the Bremen native has been playing for black and yellow for five and a half years and is already blessed with great “talent”, he has to deliver performances like against Wolfsburg “in four out of five games and not in every fifth game”, said Matthäus.
Matthäus: BVB has to continue with Sahin
Although people in the Ruhr area “of course cannot be satisfied” with the first half of the year, the TV expert basically praised Borussia for their patience with the new head coach Nuri Sahin.
“Before the season, the club consciously decided to hire a young coach Nuri Sahin. But even if Dortmund had lost in Wolfsburg and gone into the winter break in eleventh place, Borussia would have had to stick with Sahin. They decided on this path together and then you have to follow through with this decision,” emphasized Matthäus.
BVB is in sixth place after 15 match days and was also eliminated by Wolfsburg in the second round of the cup. In the Champions League, however, Dortmund can still secure direct qualification for the round of 16 in the two remaining games after the turn of the year.