Borussia Dortmund Preview

Borussia Dortmund

Coach: Jürgen Klopp

Well people who follow Bundesliga will know him very good. Very nice and emotional coach. He was flooded with premature praising when he came to Dortmund and he showed very fast that all those who rated him high were not on the wrong track.

Working with young guys is only one of his strength, with him guys like Subotic,Hummels and Santana brought stability to the defence. All of them very young and it is not typical to see such a young defence nowadays. His trust payed off and Dortmund improved a lot in defence.

Other players who profit from Klopp were Hajnal, the key player in his system, the so called playmaker. But also the "Worlds best talent" (Arsene Wenger quotation) Nuri Sahin got back to old strength and showed why he was rated as one of the best talents years ago.

Good coach and you can read his work when the team is playing on the field. "Kloppo" as he is named by BVB Fans should make a good job this season as well.

Money spend for transfers: 9.700.000 €

Money earned from transfers: 4.650.000 €

Balance: -5.050.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

The test matches ended with positive results. But the fact that Alexander Frei transferred and that Kehl is having always problems with his injury influence the team quality in a bad way.

However, Dortmund was able to get a replacement for Frei. Lucas Barrios, world scorer last season was bought and we will have to see how he adapts into the team.

Possible line-ups & tactics:

Most likely:

1. 4-4-2 (4-1-2-1-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,LM,RM,OM,ST,ST

Aim set by club:

Repeat good performances from last season, putting a bit more success on it.

Fans are always a big support and they miss the old glory times where Dortmund played a big role in the title fight.

Dortmunds aim is to improve step by step, last season 6th position so that they would love to end up in top 5.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 8/10

Weidenfeller was successful last season, even though he was not mentioned a lot in media.

Good on line, but sometimes problems with crosses.

Höttecke or Ziegler are the reserve goalkeepers. Höttecke is long keeper but he lacks experience, while Ziegler is experienced but tends to do critical mistakes from time to time.

Defence: 8/10

Left back Dede is a real Dortmund player. He does identify with the club and he will play for sure as left back if he has no injury. As a backup Marcel Schmelzer can play who impressed in test matches as well.

On Centre back position there are three young guys fighting for two positions.

Hummels and Subotic have a slight advantage over Felipe Santana, but all three did a surprising good job last season.

The season before with coach Thomas Doll Dortmund conceded too many goals. Klopp trust those young guys and they payed it back. Just sometimes we can see lack of experience especially against big clubs (Wolfsburg,Bayern e.g.).

Right back position is filled with Owomoyela who is an athletic player (he started playing basketball, then switched to football) and who can help offense with wing attacks.

Midfield: 8/10

Defensive midfield work is done by Sebastian Kehl, who is captain as well. Only problem is that he has a difficult injury at the moment and it is not sure when it will heal completely.

Alternatively Tinga can play as defensive midfield as well and also Kringe can take over that part. Tinga is known for his great run performances, never stopping and he can be annoying for offense players [Ribery got to know it last season].

For the left midfield position Nuri Sahin, Markus Feulner [came from Mainz where he played with coach Klopp already] and Kringe again.

Blaszczykowski aka Kuba will probably play on right midfield position. Very fast player who has good shots. Kringe can also fill this position if Kuba cant play but also Sven Bender, a young guy from 1860 München might get his chance to play here.

Hajnal is Dortmund's playmaker in offensive midfield. Creative guy, small, fast and he has a good eye for his teammates.

Striker: 8/10

Frei left but with Valdez, Zidane and Dimitar Rangelov Dortmund has three good strikers.

Only problem is that all of them are quite small and that they might miss some power in front, especially against strong defence players.

New transfer Barrios had a fantastic goal record in his old club. Time will show if he can adapt to German football ["I noticed that the speed is much higher here, but I will fight, fight and fight"].

All in all four strikers who should be able to score around ten goals each at least.

Total: 8/10

My prognosis:

With Jürgen Klopp Dortmund showed a great improvement last season. With a few new players the team can start into the second season with the same coach which will make a lot of things easier. I expect them to be as good as last season, if guys like Nuri Sahin, Hajnal and Lucas Barrios show their full potential they might be a surprise team even this season.

In fact they should end up around fifth position [+/- two positions maybe].