The players and officials of BVB are preoccupied, after the 0-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen, with the isolated whistles directed at Nico Schlotterbeck. While it’s commendable that they are closing ranks and defending Schlotterbeck, they are inadvertently masking a concerning drop in the team’s intensity.
It is an honor to the players and officials of Borussia Dortmund that they demonstratively stood behind Nico Schlotterbeck after the 0-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen and criticized the isolated whistles against the defender during the announcement of the starting lineup and the game.
Anything else would not have been expected and, above all, would have been counterproductive. However, demonstratively closing ranks, presenting themselves as a unit, and shielding Schlotterbeck from backlash as a team, or «as Borussians,» as coach Niko Kovac put it, is one thing.
Yet, the condemnation of what were, as mentioned, isolated and, incidentally, completely understandable boos from the fans’ perspective, was not only excessively harsh («it’s not done,» said managing director Carsten Cramer; «an outrage,» deemed defender Waldemar Anton) but also overshadowed the fact that there were more important issues that afternoon to discuss at length.
Because Dortmund is letting this season fizzle out quite considerably.
Certainly, BVB is and remains a very good second in the table. Dortmund has only lost twice in the Bundesliga, against the designated champions Bayern Munich and now against Bayer Leverkusen, whom they also lost to in the cup. The football has been aesthetically hardly worth mentioning for large parts of the season, but the results and, above all, the often invoked mentality were right. The defeat against Bayer Leverkusen, who are fighting for the Champions League, does not change that. It is also fundamentally understandable that the team, given the table situation that has been cemented for weeks in the Bundesliga – FC Bayern is far too far away, but RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart are also – is no longer fighting with all its might against a looming defeat.
And yet, there is a big «but»: The drop in intensity within the team is slowly taking on worrying proportions.
At VfB Stuttgart and against HSV, only the substitutes saved BVB
Last week in Stuttgart, BVB did not give the impression until stoppage time that they wanted to take more than a 0-0 draw home; the team didn’t even seem to want to win. The fact that it ended with a flattering 2-0 was solely due to the substitutes Karim Adeyemi, Julian Brandt, and Fabio Silva, who were solely involved in both goals as assist providers and finishers and fought for more playing time at BVB. Successfully, Brandt and Fabio Silva were in the starting lineup against Leverkusen – and at least Brandt was among the better Dortmund players in the 0-1 loss.
Even the 3-2 win against Hamburger SV before the international break, after being down 0-2, was less due to a collective performance improvement of the entire team and more to Niko Kovac’s substitutes Ramy Bensebaini and Fabio Silva.
Against Leverkusen, Dortmund started quite pleasingly and even built a semblance of dominance, without, however, having any significant actions in the penalty area. But after the unfortunate deficit, there was no resurgence to be seen in the second half; on the contrary. The fact that both fan groups stopped their support due to a medical emergency in the stands and it was consequently quiet in the arena seemed to occupy most of the BVB players far more than Schlotterbeck’s earlier whistles; the criticized player, incidentally, showed a decent performance. But that’s just a side note.
BVB: Is this Dortmund truly a Niko Kovac team?
«The German champion is not yet determined,» Niko Kovac had said just on Thursday, as mathematically, quite a lot is still possible – forward, backward. Kovac is the epitome of a realist, in a way the opposite of a dreamer. He certainly didn’t mean to say that under certain circumstances – perhaps, perhaps, somehow – they could still catch up to Bayern.
Nor did he mean that qualification for the Champions League, which BVB, by the way, has not mathematically secured yet after the loss to Leverkusen, could still be in danger. Kovac rather wanted to prevent precisely that drop in intensity among his players, which they massively showed against Leverkusen – and previously against VfB Stuttgart and Hamburger SV.
One of Niko Kovac’s greatest achievements this season at BVB is that a debate about mentality, so feared in Dortmund because it is often paralyzing and leads nowhere, has never even remotely developed. The build-up play in possession was often uninspired, yes, but Kovac has also taught the team never to give up, to always pick themselves up, and to overcome resistance. This, even though the results were right until recently, seems to have been somewhat lost. Now, with another slip-up next Saturday at TSG Hoffenheim, Bayern could be helped to a rather early championship after all.
Of course, Dortmund shouldn’t really care when Bayern celebrates their next title. But if this BVB truly wants to be a Niko Kovac team, then they should fight for a win in Hoffenheim with as much passion as they disciplined the fans on Saturday for a few whistles against Nico Schlotterbeck.