Pavel Dotchev has quite an interesting history with Erzgebirge AUE. It all started in 2015 when he first took the manager’s position at the club. That season, he led them to promotion from the third tier to the second tier of German football. He didn’t get the chance to improve on his accomplishments, ultimately being sacked midway through the 2016/17 campaign.
Fast forward to November 2021, Veilchen are sitting 17th in the 2. Bundesliga having won just one of their first 12 games of the 2021/22 season. Dotchev took over and inspired a brief upturn in form that ultimately didn’t last, resulting in the club finishing 17th. The Sofia-born head coach again departed the club, but not for long.
Act three begins in December of the following year. With Erzgebirge sitting 18th in 3. Liga in December 2022, Dotchev is brought back into the fold to prevent bad from getting worse. He succeeds, helping the team to end their first season back in the third tier since he led them to promotion in 2015/16 in 14th place.
This time, he was not sacked. Now, Erzgebirge have entrusted Dotchev with the task of rebuilding the club and eventually leading them to promotion once more. The task won’t be easy, as Veilchen’s current level of quality isn’t anything to write home about — they have the fourth-least valuable squad in Germany’s 3. Liga, per Transfermarkt, for instance.
However, despite this, they’ve enjoyed a far better start to the 2023/24 campaign than any of the seasons when Dotchev was called in to put out fires, with the club currently sitting seventh after 15 games. This tactical analysis and scout report will focus on providing an analysis of some key figures within Dotchev’s current Erzgebirge side who only joined this past summer.
Our analysis will look at how the 58-year-old coach has quickly crafted a critical spine to his side and in what way those players primarily fit into his team’s tactics. So, let’s get into the analysis then, shall we?
Niko Vukančić, 21 years old, centre-back
Niko Vukančić (186cm/6’1”, 77kg/169lbs) is the first of our key figures who joined Dotchev’s side this season and made an immediate impact. The 21-year-old Hannover-born centre-back joined from 2. Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf, having spent pretty much all of last season developing with Fortuna Düsseldorf II in Regionalliga West.
Even then, game time was not plentiful, and Vukančić made the decision to look elsewhere to continue his development — a decision that appears a wise one thus far, looking in from the outside, now that he’s ended up under Dotchev’s wing.
Vukančić is now the second left-footed centre-back within this Veilchen side. However, he’s the one who gets the most game time, ahead of Korbinian Burger, who held that distinction last season. So, 21-year-old Vukančić has replaced 28-year-old Burger in the starting XI, for all intents and purposes.
As figure 1 indicates, his primary attributes lie in the possession phases, particularly in relation to his progressive passing and even dangerous passing.
