Tuchel turnaround - reasons for Borussia Dortmund's resurgence

The Christmas of 2014 was not a pleasant one for anyone associated with Borussia Dortmund. The club had become a powerhouse in German football under the charismatic Jürgen Klopp and fans were spoiled by recent successes the club had enjoyed since being on the verge of being defunct in the early noughties. The club finished the 2014 Hinrunde, or the first half of the season, in the relegation zone, and it was an alarming prospect that a club of such stature with an 80,000 capacity stadium, could suffer the threat of relegation, only a couple of years after appearing in a Champions League final.

1. Tuchel’s Tactics

When Tuchel was appointed, few had heard of the ex-Mainz boss and what he’d accomplished previously. Promoted from the Mainz youth squad to the first team role following their promotion to the Bundesliga, Tuchel guided Mainz to seven wins in their first seven Bundesliga games. The tiny club even went to the Allianz Arena and defeated the German giants, Bayern Munich. Mainz finished fifth in Tuchel’s first season, a remarkable feat for a club that had only just been promoted. He led them to the Europa League in the 2013-14 season too, and left the club to take a year’s sabbatical, spurning the advances of Schalke and Leverkusen in the process. To be fair to the fans, Tuchel had no big club experience or the name recognition that most big-club managers have, and their doubts were not completely unjustified. He has so far answered his critics in style, with Die Schwarzgelben playing some of the most attacking football in Europe.

When Klopp left, fans assumed that it signalled the death of the Gegenpressing style that had defined the club for the last seven years. Tuchel, though, has come in and honoured the style of play that has brought so much recent success to the club, and has simply fine-tuned it to iron out the kinks, much like Luis Enrique at Barcelona. The team has retained their lightning transitions and frantic pressing style of play, but has also added more arrows to their quiver. Teams had begun to figure out the counter attacking play of Klopp’s BVB, and simply sat back and soaked the pressure, leaving no space for counters. Tuchel has added a possession based play to the team, with average possession up to almost 60%, from the 50-52% of the previous 2 seasons. The breath-taking counters are still there, but Dortmund can now break a team that is doggedly defending, as evidenced in their 1-0 win at Hannover in February. Tuchel has improved the play without straying too far from the club’s roots and traditions, and deserves a lot of credit for it.

The key to a possession-based play is to have the right set of players to implement it. A position of some importance to the system is the Regista, or deep lying playmaker. The regista sits deep and orchestrates the game, holding the reins to the tempo and overall play of the game. Tuchel recognised he needs someone to sit deep and do exactly that, so that they could keep a hold of the ball, and unlock the attacking instincts of Ilkay Gundogan, and he found just the man in Julian Weigl, the 19 year old skipper of 1860 Munich in the second tier. Tuchel himself might have been surprised with the youngster’s success, as the midfielder has displaced established stars like Sven Bender from the starting line-up, and made the regista role his own. Tidy in possession, and defensively solid, the youngster has a 92% pass accuracy this season, completing 82 passes per 90 minutes on an average. He also averages almost two tackles and three interceptions per 90 minutes, showing he’s no mug defensively. He had 191 touches in the 4-1 rout of Frankfurt this season, completing 174 passes out of 182 attempted. A 95.6% pass accuracy is astonishing, but the fact that he attempted 182 passes in 191 touches of the ball shows not only his confidence and skill on the ball, but also his selflessness. Weigl’s numbers might fall just short of Xabi Alonso’s this season, but that isn’t bad for a 20 year old who’s only going to get better.

But it’s not only Julian Weigl who has hit the ground running. Last year’s summer window was a disaster for the club, and it was important to reinvigorate the team with fresh signings. Weigl was an absolute steal at 2.5 million Euros, but Gonzalo Castro, signed from Leverkusen has come into his own as the season has progressed, displacing fan favourite Shinji Kagawa in the line-up in the past few matches, and justifiably so. Roman Burki replacing the aging Weidenfeller between the sticks, has been solid overall, but is prone to the odd error. Joo-Hoo Park has been a good squad player, the purpose he was signed for, to cover for injures to Erik Durm and other defenders. Overall, the window could be labelled a success, and that has been key to the renewed vigour in the side this season.

Jürgen Klopp was dealt the unenviable task of replacing Bayern bound Robert Lewnadowski. ‘Lewa’ as he was affectionately known, was integral to the Dortmund way of play, with his technical ability, and intense pressing from the front. His goals had helped the club lift numerous trophies, and his departure left a gaping hole in the starting line-up. Klopp then proceeded to sign Ciro Immobile, fresh from winning the Serie A golden boot with Torino, and Colombian Adrian Ramos from Hertha Berlin to replace Lewandowski. Unfortunately, the new signings couldn’t fill in his shoes. Goals were a major problem for Dortmund last season, and the striker issue had to be sorted to turn the club’s fortunes around. Immobile was offloaded and Ramos now warms the BVB bench. But one of Klopp’s signings has come to the fore: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The superhero loving, eccentric forward has taken the Bundesliga by storm. 20 league goals and 30 in all competitions has meant that Dortmund are Bundesliga joint top scorers, scoring goals for fun. Mostly utilised on the flanks last season, the shift to the middle has been a fruitful one, to put it lightly. His searing pace and cool finishing means he is one of Europe’s leading marksmen. His form has been crucial to Dortmund’s upturn in form this season, and Dortmund will do well to keep him at the club next season to try to loosen Bayern’s grip on the ‘Deutsche Meisterschale’ crown.

4. Rejuvenating MARK

But this year, Tuchel has come in and rejuvenated the forward line. With a balanced double pivot of Weigl and Gundogan, Tuchel has given his forward line more creative liberties, and MARK, the exciting forward line of Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Reus and Kagawa has flourished, scoring goals for fun with some eye-catching football. He has particularly worked his magic on Mkhitaryan, with the midfielder scoring 18 goals and registering 20 assists in 33 matches this season. Mkhitaryan’s new position on the flanks as an inside forward has been a masterstroke, with the midfielder thriving and bringing back memories of his 29 goal season for Shakthar in 2012/13. Reus has still been plagued with niggles, but he has been phenomenal whenever he has played. Aubameyang has been prolific, and Tuchel has gotten Kagawa at his creative best. Kagawa has suffered a little blip right now, but started the season in great form. Overall, the phenomenal season for MARK in numbers is listed below-

Mkhitaryan: 35 Matches- 18 Goals, 20 assists.

Reus: 27 Matches- 16 goals, 6 assists.

Kagawa: 30 Matches- 8 Goals, 10 assists.

71 goals, 44 assists. Those numbers are staggering for just a 4 player aggregate for 2/3rd a season. It is easy to assume the red-hot form of the attacking players has reversed the club’s fortunes. Defensively, Tuchel has improved the team too. The pressing play is still evident, and entrusting the out of favour, yet extremely potent Matthias Ginter has rejuvenated the youngster’s career. Ginter is a versatile player but his exploits at right back going forward, has been a surprise. The German has contributed 3 goals and 10 assists this season, quite exceptional numbers for an adopted full back. Hummels had a shaky start, but is back to his commanding best, playing the ball out of the back. Schmelzer too, had contributed in both halves exceptionally, and the team has found a good sense of balance and rhythm. Tuchel has figured this, and rarely alters the line-up much, meaning loanee Adnan Januzaj was on the flight back to Manchester earlier than expected, featuring sparsely over the first half of the season.

A lot of factors have clicked into place for the Dortmund of old to resurface. As a loyal Dortmund fan, it was heart-breaking to see Klopp leave, but Tuchel has come in and done a great job, tweaking few aspects of the club while maintaining the old system the club has come to be associated with. He also managed to hold on to the star players, at the start of the season. A firesale was a distinct possibility, with Hummels, Gundogan, Reus and Mkhitaryan all questioning their futures at the club. Tuchel convinced them all to stay, and trimmed the squad too, with loyal servants such as Kevin Groβkreutz and Jakub Blaszczykowski were all offloaded. The future looks bright, and the signing of the exciting prospect Mikel Merino from Osasuna announced a few days ago is a sign of how Tuchel values youth and the club looks to be in good hands. If things go on as they have begun for Tuchel, Dortmund will be back in the Champions League, somewhere they have showed they belong, and well on their way to erasing the memories of a catastrophic first half of last season. 

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