Borussia Dortmund had a flying start to the season. The new manager Lucien Favre has established his football vision and managed to create a well balanced team with a great style of play. A mix of experience and rough talent has been the perfect solution to their Bundesliga struggles. Despite some of them being quite risky, making a few transfer moves made the difference and improved their squad immensely.
Their performance during the first half of the season was superb as they won 15 of their first 19 games in the Bundesliga, including a 3-2 win over Bayern Munich. After the first half of the season, things started to fall apart. They seem to have lost their way and allowed the Bavarians to overtake them at the top of the table.
After the 25th round, both teams are level on points with goal difference keeping them apart. They have won only one game in their last eight fixtures in all competitions, including getting knocked out of the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League round of 16. The Black and Yellows’ only chance to win a trophy is under threat and despite the undeniably talented squad, there is still a lot to be worked on.
Their struggles in turning the huge amount of created chances into goals might be central to their downfall, despite having the likes of Marco Reus, Mario Goetze, Paco Alcacer and former Manchester City youngster Jadon Sancho in front of goal. The team is producing a fairly high amount of shots per game with half of them being on target, but yet a lack of good finishing has been the main reason for them being knocked out of the cup competitions.
But what went wrong, and will this turn of events actually help Lucien Favre’s side take some rest and focus on the Bundesliga challenge?
Lucien Favre’s impact
The Swiss coach took over in the summer and transformed Borussia into an unstoppable goal-scoring machine. Lucien Favre’s approach to the transfer market boosted the squads quality noticeably and turned it into a confident, well balanced title contender. Not only did the team receive additional firepower up front, but the defenisve line was reinforced too.
Favre’s tactics of building attacks patiently and relying on a clinical finish have worked wonders. This has been a result of his consistency when it comes to team and formation selections. Half of the teams’ goals have come in the last 30 minutes of the games which is part of the Swiss’ strategy to control the game and then attack from deep or counter-attack.
Their overall pass accuracy rate is 87.6% which is actually another result of the intelligent moves on the transfer market. Let’s see why.
