Brandt’s passports would look good in instructional videos
You didn’t just see Brandt scoring goals, his skills were also hard to miss. Brandt recognized spaces that Stuttgart’s defenders only identified as such a fraction of a second later. He ran a lot and often correctly, and then this technique. Some of the passes Brandt played would look good in instructional videos.
In moments like those against Stuttgart, Brandt is a player for the imagination, then there is always magic. There have been a few of those this season. Brandt has scored seven goals and six assists in 26 games, his third season in Dortmund is already the best, according to the statistics.
So why, one wonders, hasn’t such a gifted footballer played for one of the really big clubs in the world? Why does the national coach Hansi Flick usually do without him? Why does Brandt sometimes sit on the substitutes’ bench at BVB?
Rose: Brandt rather “not a duel monster”
Here it is worth listening to the words of Dortmund coach Marco Rose. He likes to call Brandt Jule, and when Rose talks about Jule, there is often praise. “Jule starts, Jule makes the way, Jule always works out”said Rose.
Sounds good, like Rose football and not just magic. Only Rose does not constantly praise, he also identified room for improvement.“We will certainly not make a one-on-one monster out of him anymore”Rose said: “But I just ask that we are all ready to hurt each other in a competitive game.”
In fact, you won’t see Brandt dashing across the green in a monster duel anymore, but that’s not the problem. Brandt is not only the man for the magic like against Stuttgart, his game is sometimes careless. Sometimes he then takes risks where it is not appropriate. And he sometimes loses balls where you shouldn’t lose balls.
Then the balance isn’t right, and that’s a problem for a fragile structure like BVB. You could also say: Brandt is a symbol for Dortmund’s team. The extremes are closer together here than anywhere else, and if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. At moments like this, the people of Dortmund give up riddles, and Brandt is their riddle player.
“Want to try to improve the squad”
It is not unlikely that a player casting will take place behind the scenes in Dortmund in these weeks, that it may also be about Brandt, who is sometimes a magician and then a puzzle player again. In any case, the coach Rose has said more often recently that he would like more determination and physique in his team’s game.
A few days ago he cited Villarreal FC, FC Bayern’s Champions League opponents, as an example. What role Brandt could play in a Westphalian Villarreal, one can only speculate these days. Anyway, Rose said: “We want to try to improve the squad in the summer.”
Brandt and the “wow effect”
When Brandt was still a very young player who only puzzled his opponents, he gave “Zeit Online” an interview worth reading in 2017. It was about a possible alienation between the football business and the spectators, but it was also about the footballer Brandt and moments of joy.
Brandt should explain what fascinates him about football, what makes him happy. He then spoke of what he called the “wow effect”. He meant the special, also the unexpected – and of course those were things that characterize the game of footballer Brandt in his best moments.
Brandt said: “Actually, that’s why I play football: to surprise people. And I’ve made it my goal to keep it that way, despite all the tactical responsibility.”