Donyell Malen switched from PSV Eindhoven to Borussia Dortmund last summer for 30 million euros. The expectations of the winger were correspondingly high. But he couldn’t really convince in the BVB jersey. License player manager Sebastian Kehl now increased the pressure on the Dutchman.
“Donny always tried extremely hard to implement the things that the coach asked for,” Kehl is quoted as saying by the “kicker”: “The basic willingness to work on yourself to get better was always recognizable.”
In the meantime, Malen has “increased in all areas”, but is “far from having reached the end of the development”. “We therefore expect a further improvement from him in the future,” Kehl demanded.
After initial difficulties, Malen’s performance has stabilized. In the Bundesliga, the international has five goals and six assists from 27 games. There are also four goals on the European stage.
Last winter, after the bitter 2-1 defeat in the top game against RB Leipzig, Malen received a public rebuke from BVB sports director Michael Zorc.
“It’s clear that Donny isn’t showing what we were hoping for,” he told the “kicker” at the time, “he emits too little goal danger and offers too little. We have to work with him on that.” However, painting has “all the skills – and we have patience”.
Rose expects paint to explode
Coach Marco Rose also said at the time: “Donny has to work on his mindset.” But the BVB coach didn’t want to let the pressure get too big either. He emphasized “that at some point Donny gets to a point where he feels 100 percent confidence and then he explodes.”
Most recently, Rose found words of praise for his protégé. “Donny gave a lot during the phase in which Earl (Erling Haaland, editor’s note) was missing,” said the 45-year-old.