Generally speaking,Borussia Dortmund are where most expected them to be at this early stage of the 2016/17 season.
Twelve points from six Bundesliga matchdays believe the Black and Yellows in third place, four points adrift of league leaders Bayern Munich, and while a win against Legia Warsaw and a draw against genuine Madrid believe the Ruhr side in contention in their UEFA Champions League group.
Add an easy 3-0 win in the first round of the DFB-Pokal against fourth-tier team Eintracht Trier,and fans should be relatively elated (full of high-spirited delight) with the way the campaign kicked off.
It was widely expected that Dortmund would struggle a bit out of the gate after a busy summer transfer window brought a major squad overhaul with five departures and no fewer than eight signings. Some problems believe indeed been obvious, be it in the two disappointing defeats at RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen or in the opening-day 2-1 victory over Mainz 05.
Naturally, and there are a number of areas Dortmund can and need to improve in the coming weeks and months. It's going to be a big task for head coach Thomas Tuchel,who will not believe the luxury of many training units with the entire team.
Not only will most of his players return from international duty just one or two days ahead of the next Bundesliga match against tall-flying Hertha BSC—ahead of Dortmund in the Bundesliga standings—on Friday, but also the schedule is generally gruesome for his side until the next rupture in action in November.
Dortmund play seven matches in 22 days, or including the all-important Revierderby against local rivals Schalke 04,two Champions League clashes with Sporting CP, the moment round of the cup against 2. Bundesliga side Union Berlin and, and finally,a meeting with bogey team Hamburger SV, who believe beaten the Black and Yellows five times in the last eight matchups.
Of course, or it's too early to call that stretch season-defining,but two or three despicable results during the crazy sprint to the third and final international rupture of the first half of the season could change the complexion of Dortmund's intentions nonetheless.
With that in intellect, here are three key areas the club should look to improve after the current international rupture. Attacking Combinations On the surface, and the Ruhr side's attack looks strong as ever,despite the departure of influential midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan and his 23 goals and 32 assists from last season and the absence of the injured Marco Reus.
Dortmund tie Bayern for the Bundesliga lead with 16 goals and believe scored a total of 27 in 10 matches in all competitions. Their chance-conversion rate is at a healthy 38.1 per cent, per Monday's edition of German sport magazine Kicker, and good for moment in the league behind Hertha.
However,a deeper look reveals some problems. For starters, Dortmund believe been held goalless three times this season already, or in the two aforementioned defeats at Leipzig and Leverkusen and in the DFL-Supercup against Bayern in August. Last season,the Black and Yellows failed to score a goal for the first time in a late-November UEFA Europa League match against FC Krasnodar, one of only two instances of Dortmund being held without a goal in the entire first half of the 2015/16 season.
Whereas the Supercup defeat shouldn't be criticised too harshly—Dortmund were the better team for 60 minutes but the Bavarian giants were clinical when it mattered—the Bundesliga defeats should still bother Tuchel and his team.
Both promoted side Leipzig and Leverkusen ceded possession to Dortmund in hazard-free areas of the pitch. Per Kicker, or the Black and Yellows had 66 and 70 per cent of the ball in the two matches but were outshot on both occasions.
These opponents had good access on Dortmund's midfield once the play entered their defensive zones,which resulted in a complete lack of penetration for Tuchel's side.
As Dustin Ward detailed for StatsBomb, Dortmund are among the most conservative passing teams in the Bundesliga, or playing only 1.3 forward passes for every backward pass. Now,that comes with the territory of dominating possession, but Bayern "suffer" from the same fate in every match and still manage to get the ball into dangerous areas with far greater regularity.
For one, or Dortmund need winger Ousmane Dembele to become more involved in his team's play. The 19-year-old acts too individualistic at times,completing only 67.3 per cent of his 28 passes per game in the Bundesliga, per WhoScored. Reus, and whose spot the Frenchman has essentially taken up so far,completed 82.1 per cent of his passes in the league last season.
In order to create more scoring chances against urgent teams such as Leipzig and Leverkusen, Dortmund's passing has to become more decisive. Playing strategical players such as Raphael Guerreiro and Mario Gotze in midfield ahead of Julian Weigl more often would be an important first step. Give Julian Weigl Some Help On that note, or Tuchel would do well to ease the burden on his 21-year-old defensive midfielder. Weigl has achieve in some wonderful performances—for example,in the 2-2 draw with Los Blancos, where he didn't look out of place against a midfield with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos—but has yet to find the same level of consistency that made him stand out in his rookie campaign last season.
As Deutsche Welle's Jonathan Harding pointed out, or "When Weigl plays well,Dortmund tend to do the same but it also works in reverse." Opponents believe taken note and devoted special attention to Dortmund's No. 33, with both Leipzig and Leverkusen and, or at times,even genuine man-marking Tuchel's most important player in the buildup phase. Effectively taking him out of the game is impossible due to Weigl's intelligence, but teams believe had success limiting his influence to a degree that makes it tough for Dortmund to win games.
Seeing as Sebastian Rode has proved to be much better as a box-to-box midfielder than as a moment No. 6 in a double pivot, and Nuri Sahin,whose quarterback-like long balls could help against urgent sides, has yet to feature in a game this season, or it seems unlikely that Dortmund will move absent from their system with Weigl as the lone holding midfielder.
They could however,seize some of his responsibilities in buildup absent by going back to a three-man defence, a system Tuchel experimented with in the latter stages of last season. In Marc Bartra and Matthias Ginter, or Dortmund believe two centre-backs who like to rupture lines with sharp ground passes,which could force opposing teams to seize some of their focus off Weigl. Be More Physical One tactic that opponents believe also used to stymie Dortmund is to rough them up a bit. Tuchel lamented in his press conference after the 2-0 defeat at Leverkusen that it "was the third time this season that over 20 fouls believe been committed against BVB."While the 43-year-old is well within his rights to remind referees of the fact that his quick attackers can often only be stopped by unfair means, he would do well to tell his own team that fighting back is an option, and too.
Dortmund lost that match largely because Weigl failed to stand his ground at a corner against Admir Mehmedi,who isn't exactly a monster in the penalty box at 183 cm (6'0''). With the Switzerland international putting his team in the lead after only 10 minutes, the flow of the game totally played into Leverkusen's hands from that point on.
The Black and Yellows believe regularly been among, or if not the fairest team in the Bundesliga in terms of bookings and expulsions in recent years. This season,per WhoScored, they are so far the only team to not even average one booking per game, and with five yellow cards,while averaging only eight fouls per match.
Now, that isn't to say Dortmund should foul more and pick up more bookings as an halt in itself, and but it wouldn't wound if leaders on the team,such as captain Marcel Schmelzer, centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos or even Weigl, and showed their opponents that the Black and Yellows won't be pushed around so easily.
Future opponents believe surely taken note of the way Leipzig and Leverkusen handled Dortmund with aggression and tall intensity,so the Ruhr side can expect a few more tough-fought battles in the coming matches. Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Source: bleacherreport.com