Regardless of how many or how few the number of new players are reinforcing German club Borussia Dortmund this season, new BVB manager Thomas Tuchel appears to be successful in bringing in one important part of the team roster.
Not a new midfielder. Not a new goal keeper. Not a new captain. Not a new talisman. Actually, I am not talking about a man. I am talking about Tuchel bringing to the team confidence.
Last season was hard on Borussia Dortmund, and the cracks in the team following the near disaster in top tier Bundesliga are telling. BVB flirted with relegation for long stretches, Borussia Dortmund not knowing if they’d sink or swim.
Swim they did, fortunately, under the auspices of a manager making his final hurrah for a team he made proud not more than once. And with Jurgen Klopp’s exit, Borussia Dortmund had mixed feelings – they were relieved to have made a good push to tow them to safety, but the departure of a leader has left them all the more vulnerable; at least this is something they cannot help but harbour in the dark recesses of their mind.
And Tuchel knows this – and notices this – too. Just look at his comments following Borussia Dortmund’s 5-0 clean slate triumph over Wolfsberger AC:
“The second half was a good reaction to the first. We played at a high tempo, showed a lot of good characteristics in our play, created a lot of chances on goal and ultimately found the net five times. I was satisfied with the second-half performance. In the first period, we showed a lack of positional discipline, meaning we couldn’t pass our way round the opposition so much. In the second 45 minutes we were more disciplined in the spaces where we wanted to put together link-up play. We strung together quicker passing movements and often played between the lines.”
You can notice that the appraisal is not about some vague notion of improvement, but something more definitive, tactical and specific, to prove that Tuchel is not just merely addressing weak spots that needs to be corrected, that he too notices the changes that result from the hard work being rendered by each and every Borussia Dortmund player.
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