Borussia Dortmund is wobbling worryingly after three defeats at the start of the year. Record national player Lothar Matthäus takes BVB’s leading players to task.
“There’s just nothing happening,” said Lothar Matthäus, criticizing the veterans like captain Emre Can and Julian Brandt on “Sky90”.
BVB started the new year with defeats against Bayer Leverkusen (2:3), Holstein Kiel (2:4) and Eintracht Frankfurt (0:2). Borussia Dortmund is only in tenth place in the Bundesliga after the first 18 matchdays. The gap to the Champions League ranks is already seven points.
Matthäus criticizes BVB coach Sahin
Coach Nuri Sahin is consequently under pressure. Matthäus attests that the 36-year-old is partly to blame for the sporting misery. “There is no hierarchy in the team, there is no one who leads the team like a Kimmich in Munich or a Xhaka in Leverkusen,” analyzed the 1990 world champion.
The criticism is that the players don’t know where they stand in which hierarchy with Terzic’s successor. “Sahin hasn’t found the team that has the DNA that we know from Borussia Dortmund,” said Matthäus.
The TV expert explained: “Right from the start, Nuri didn’t do what I expect from a coach. That he said I’m coming as a new coach, have new players and am trying to find the first 13,14 players . But he wanted to take everyone with him and to this day he hasn’t succeeded.”
BVB in demand in the Champions League
Borussia Dortmund continues away at FC Bologna on Tuesday evening (9 p.m. in the live ticker at sport.de). The black and yellow are in ninth place in the league phase after six of eight match days. The best eight qualify directly for the round of 16.
Sahin and Co. are hoping for their first sense of success in the premier class in 2025.