A stir at BVB before the Villarreal game
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With a victory out of the crisis of meaning: Borussia Dortmund urgently needs a sense of success again in the Champions League. After three games in a row without threes under coach Niko Kovac, a debate has broken out about recurring patterns of defensive mistakes. Before the fifth preliminary round game on Tuesday (9 p.m./Amazon Prime) against Villarreal FC, the coach has his hands full ensuring that the notoriously restless environment does not rub off on his team. “For us that means winning the game at home tomorrow. That’s our clear goal,” Kovac demanded of his team on Monday.
Because the players have seemed nervous for a long time. “Of course the mood is not so good when you lose once and draw twice,” said goalkeeper Gregor Kobel after the latest blows in the neck: 1:4 in the premier class at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, only 1:1 at newly promoted Hamburger SV and in the end the turbulent 3:3 against VfB Stuttgart.
Maximilian Beier reacted to this even more nervously than Kobel. “It’s shit: you score the goal in the 90th and then concede the equalizer in the 90th. The mood is down right now,” said the attacker, who will probably miss the game against Villarreal. On Monday, the final training session ended early for him due to muscular problems. “It currently looks like he is not available,” Kovac said. Defender Niklas Süle (toe injury) will also be out again. However, Ramy Bensebaini is back.
BVB coach Kovac classifies Beier’s statements
“I don’t know how old Maxi is: 21, 22, 23. At the beginning of the season he said we want to be champions. Now we’re at rock bottom. You don’t have to believe everything the boy says. He probably has too much lactate in his body and then it doesn’t quite work,” replied Kovac when asked about Beier’s – who is 23 years old – words after the game. “We are certainly not at the bottom,” emphasized the coach, but he also knew: “We have to change a few things.”
With a little distance, he reclassified his first reaction to Beier’s words, which had caused a stir, on Monday. “Maybe we can take out the pictures when I talk like that. I laugh. I’m joking, but apparently it doesn’t come across that way. I think you know exactly what I meant and we don’t have to exaggerate it so much*. Next time I won’t answer. We can do it like that. But when I laugh, I think it’s clear what I mean. And the Stuttgart people were there too, they understood it exactly that way.”
FC Villarreal top in Spain, a flop in the Champions League
Conceding eight goals in three games is too much for BVB, and the last-minute goals against HSV and Stuttgart are also worrying. The fact that Dortmund can no longer confidently maintain narrow leads over time is cause for concern. “We have to defend it like there is no tomorrow. We definitely still have room for improvement,” admitted Kovac. Opinions about this seem to differ within the team. “We shouldn’t make a big drama out of it. We’ll show a different face in the next few weeks,” announced defender Waldemar Anton. “We are of course stable enough to flip the switch again.”
Preferably against Villarreal. The Spaniards have only picked up one point from four games in the premier class and lost, among others, to the underdog FC Pafos from Cyprus. In LaLiga, however, the team from near Valencia is currently the third strongest force behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
“We have a good chance of putting ourselves in a great starting position with the home fans. That’s an opportunity that we want to use 100 percent,” emphasized Kobel. This would not only be good to improve the starting position with a view to direct qualification for the round of 16, but also for self-confidence after the recent negative experiences.
*Note: A previous version of the article used the word “high sterilization”. This was a transcription error and has been corrected.