BVB under Rose with the weakest defense since 1986 – Hummels: “A lot of nonsensical football”

Still a chance for a championship

“We play a lot of nonsensical football and make the opponents unnecessarily strong,” said BVB defense chief Mats Hummels after the 2: 4 against Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League on “RTL +”. It was goals conceded 51 to 54 in the 33rd game under coach Marco Rose – that corresponds to 1.7 goals conceded per game. The last time Dortmund’s defense was inferior, Hummels was not yet born and there was a relegation battle instead of a chance at the championship.

In the 1985/86 season, BVB saved the league in the relegation against SC Fortuna Köln in three duels (0:2, 3:1, 8:0). Coach Pál Csernai’s team, which started the season under completely different circumstances than Rose’s team today, conceded an average of 1.86 goals per game.

In this millennium, Borussia Dortmund’s defensive work was only as weak as it is today in the 2007/08 season. At that time Thomas Doll was on the bench and led the team with an average of 1.7 against goals to 13th place in the Bundesliga and into the DFB Cup final, where they lost 2-1 to FC Bayern after extra time. The central defense at that time was provided by Christian Wörns, Robert Kovac and Markus Brzenska as well as a 19-year-old Hummels from the second half of the season.

Jürgen Klopp followed Doll, who breathed fresh air into the club and had a top defensive backing in the championship years from 2010 to 2012. In 2010/11, Roman Weidenfeller and his goalkeeper colleagues only had to get behind them 0.66 times on average, in 2011/12 it was 0.83 goals per game.

With 2.3 goals scored per game, Rose’s offensive today is the second best in this millennium after 2015/16, when BVB scored 2.46 times per game under Thomas Tuchel – but Tuchel’s BVB was also able to defend better with 0.93 goals conceded . “I think I can still reach the boys. I see nodding heads in training and in conversations,” said Rose, who came from Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer for a fee of more than 5 million euros and has the backing of sports director Michael Zorc (on the Zor statements). One reason for this is likely to be Rose’s point average of 1.85, with which he almost comes close to Jürgen Klopp (1.9).

The fact that the goal of the season after the elimination in the group phase of the Champions League and in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup will probably be achieved at least in the Bundesliga is due to the offensive by Erling Haaland, for whose hopes Borussia was able to gather few arguments. If you only look at the Bundesliga table, BVB is in good shape despite “a lot of nonsensical football” with only six points behind FC Bayern – a win in a direct duel on the 31st match day could create excitement.

From 2022/23, Niklas Süle will be in charge of the BVB defence, coming from Munich on a free transfer. The current goal values ​​speak for a major upheaval in the Dortmund defense network, where the contracts of Dan-Axel Zagadou (until 2022), Marin Pongracic (loaner 2022), Mats Hummels (2023), Manuel Akanji (2023) and Raphaël Guerreiro (2023) do not run too long. In eight of the 33 games since Rose took office, Gregor Kobel and Co. had to reach behind them at least three times. This was the case four times in 51 games in 2020/21 under Lucien Favre and later Edin Terzic.

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