There are many construction sites at BVB. There would be Erling Haaland’s future, the holey defense and the team’s fluctuating performance. But another problem has been looming for months.
The game-free weekend was actually quite convenient for BVB. Coach Marco Rose’s team had already prepared for opponents Mainz 05, but the cancellation due to the many corona cases for the game last Sunday with the “zero fives” was not a serious blow for Borussia. Because the list of missing players is still long.
Dortmund were already missing several important players in Augsburg, alongside long-term injuries such as Mateu Morey and Marcel Schmelzer. Manuel Akanji, Thomas Meunier, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Giovanni Reyna, Marco Reus and Erling Haaland were all unavailable to coach Marco Rose. The majority of them should have watched against Mainz as well. Marco Reus would have been a candidate again, the rest would hardly be.
The fact that the number of absentees is so high is not unusual at BVB this season. Erling Haaland, for example, has already missed 16 games and rarely stayed healthy for a long time. Several muscle injuries stopped the goalscorer. And he is not alone. Other players also drop out again and again – often with muscle problems. Defense chief Mats Hummels complained after the Europa League defeat against Rangers from Glasgow: “We have 100,000 injuries all the time.”
Forward talent Youssoufa Moukoko has already suffered three muscle injuries this season. (Source: Revierfoto/imago images)
The elephant has been in the room for months: Dortmund has a problem that runs through the whole season. As early as October last year, BVB advisor Matthias Sammer saw the physical differences between Borussia and Ajax as the reason for the 0: 4 swatter in Amsterdam. “I think that with the exception of Akanji, everyone on the pitch was ailing this season. (…) Ajax could march like there was no tomorrow. (…) You can now say: I’ll run a marathon without Training workload, but you can’t do it,” he said during the Champions League game on the streaming channel Amazon Prime Video.
Rose finds no root formation
The fact that BVB was already lacking freshness back then and only a few players were at 100 percent should have set the alarm bells ringing. And as a result, the situation never really relaxed. There were also corona failures, so that coach Rose could hardly find a regular formation and be recorded. That is why, for example, in mid-December 2021 in Berlin, a central defense consisting of Marin Pongracic (central defender number four) and Axel Witsel (defensive midfield) acted against Hertha because the first three central defenders were missing. The lack of chemistry between Pongracic and Witsel was evident from the start. The result: a 2:3 defeat.
This game was just one example of several games in which BVB did not show a clear face. All too often set pieces were mismatched or counter-hugging coordination left a lot to be desired.
Dortmund brings up the rear – Union is the leader
According to research by the “fussballmorale.com” portal, Dortmund had by far the most lost days of all Bundesliga clubs in the first half of the season. The players were absent for almost 48 days on average. The players at VfB Stuttgart had the second most absent days with almost 42.
Even if the three long-term injured Soumaila Coulibaly, Marcel Schmelzer and Mateu Morey had been excluded, Dortmund would still be among the three clubs with the most injuries. The problem cannot be dismissed out of hand.
The fact is: the multiple burdens on Dortmund with the DFB Cup, Champions League and everyday life in the Bundesliga played a role. But other teams were affected too, and they all did better. Union Berlin even led the ranking with the fewest lost days. Eintracht Frankfurt finished fifth, VfL Wolfsburg ninth.
Bad luck – or not?
In these cases, experts, fans and coaches like to speak of “unlucky injuries”. In some cases that is certainly true. But that injuries are always a matter of luck is a fallacy. Injuries usually result either from accidents, such as a foul or a collision, or from overloading and improper management of that load. Because tired or overexerted players lose body tension, which is a high risk in terms of injury prevention.
According to the “Sports Report 2020” of the administrative trade association (VBG for short), more than every fifth injury to a player occurs between the 31st and 45th minute of a football game. In the final quarter of an hour of the second half, there were also a significant number of abnormalities. Thigh injuries in particular, the most common type of injury in football, occur during this period. “The reason for this could be fatigue or overloading of the muscles,” says the report. Many of those thigh injuries also occur at BVB.
Apparently Rose hasn’t found the right formula here with his staff and medical department. The 45-year-old is actually aware of the importance of this topic. He brought the current Dortmund athletics coach, Patrick Eibenberger, with him from Gladbach. Rose already knows him from his Salzburg days.
Nevertheless, the situation in Dortmund is critical. And for the end of the season in the Bundesliga, Rose and his team should urgently get the problem under control. But the analysis will be even more important after this season. Because if BVB should move back into the Champions League, the club urgently needs a rethink in order to have more freshness and fewer failures in the coming year.