Borussia Dortmund simply can’t get rid of its fluctuations in performance and is once again puzzling – especially itself. After the defeat in Stuttgart, BVB is in danger of losing sight of the top of the table early on.
Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic was visibly frustrated. His team had just lost 2-1 at VfB Stuttgart, their second defeat in the Bundesliga in a row, after the 4-0 defeat against FC Bayern last week. “We have once again shown a familiar face with whom we are very dissatisfied”said Terzic, alluding to Dortmund’s fluctuations in performance. Four days after the strong 2-0 win against Newcastle United In the Champions League, the runner-up with the Swabians showed an indisputable performance.
Deniz Undav (42nd minute) and striker Serhou Guirassy scored for VfB on his comeback with a penalty kick (83rd minute). Niclas Füllkrug (36th) surprisingly gave Dortmund, who had been disappointing for a long time, the lead.
Terzic is puzzled and feels “shitty”
Terzic wanted his team after the game “don’t shred” and held back with individual criticism, but it became clear on the Sportschau microphone: “I feel like crap. The performance was crap, the result was crap. We can’t explain that today because so many things went wrong, especially in the first half. What we showed today wasn’t enough.”
The search for the reasons for the football rollercoaster initially left the BVB coach at a loss: “Now that I’m so emotionally charged, it’s hard to find an explanation. But I can bring up the same thing today as I did seven days ago. And that’s what’s so annoying. It was nobody’s fault today, there was nobody Referee, not an opponent – it was completely up to us and we take responsibility for that.”
Füllkrug: “It didn’t fit on many levels”
Goalscorer Füllkrug became more specific and put his finger in the wound. But he didn’t find any answers either. “It wasn’t right on many, many levels and you have to say that you have to question that. There was also no access and the changes didn’t work either. You have to recognize that this happens to us more often against teams that are good on the ball “They are those who play well in space and have situations where they are outnumbered, so that we have few solutions for that. And we don’t get any pressure on the ball either way. And then we have to analyze what that is about,” said the striker to the “kicker”.
Particularly in the first half, Dortmund was overrun by VfB at times and simply couldn’t find any means of countering the hosts’ aggressive attack. The statistics after the game spoke volumes: Stuttgart had 22 shots on goal compared to BVB’s five. The ball possession phases (57.2 to 42.8) and the missed pass rate (10.9 to 19.4) were also worlds apart from Stuttgart and BVB.
Kehl: “We can’t act like that as Borussia Dortmund”
“The way we behaved today, both in terms of group dynamics and individually, we cannot perform as Borussia Dortmund”criticized sports director Sebastian Kehl.
The goal of being at the top of the Bundesliga this season is in acute danger after three games in a row without a win. Kehl said laconically: “If this happens to us more often, we won’t need to talk about goals anymore.” Unless BVB finds answers soon and solves the puzzle.