Sports Weekly all-media reporter Huang Sijun
On Tuesday night, Sporting Lisbon (Sport of Portugal) was swept 5-0 at home by Manchester City, almost exclusively exiting the Champions League quarter-finals. Seeing this, I believe that many Dortmund fans will be indignant that the team they supported was eliminated by such a vulnerable opponent in the group stage. But just two days later, when they saw Dortmund being beaten 4-2 at home by The Rangers, the Soviet Super League champions Rangers, in the first leg of the Europa League knockout play-offs, the last trace of resentment in their hearts may also be wiped out...
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Conceded 4 goals in 17 minutes
To put it bluntly, with the "nerve knife" of the season so far, Dortmund simply do not deserve to be in the Champions League knockout rounds, or even qualify for the title in any of the competitions. With a precedent of exiting from a universally easy Champions League group, you wouldn't be surprised at all that Borussia Dortmund's subsequent defeats at the German Cup (knocked out 2-1 by Bundesliga champions St. Pauli in the quarter-finals a month ago) and the Europa League were also beaten by a recognised weaker opponent.
Reuss defended Alibo poorly in front of the point, which eventually led to Dortmund conceding the second goal.
Against the Rangers, Borussia Dortmund was unable to score for a long time in the dominant situation, and as a result conceded 4 goals in just 17 minutes (38th to 54th minutes) in the middle of the game, and each goal was related to the player's personal low-level mistakes: the first goal was Zagadou's unnecessary raising of his left hand to touch the ball when defending the corner; the second goal was also a defensive error in the corner, Reuss at the defensive front point was unimpressed, and was rubbed by Alibo from the back of the front of the front header, Brandt, who was originally responsible for guarding Morelos at the back post, simply missed everything; the third goal was because Hummels and Accangy were easily swept away by The English winger Kent, who had briefly played for Freiburg; the fourth goal was first Mukoko's ball on the side was snatched by Kent, and then Zagadu unfortunately stretched out his foot to swing himself.
Had it not been for Guerrero's world-beating blast at the end of the game, saving a bit of suspense for the second leg a week later, Dortmund could have almost announced their exit from the third game of the season in advance. Since the cancellation of the away scoring rules in This season's European games, Dortmund, which is the theoretical advantage, as long as they score as soon as possible in the second leg, equalizing is not an impossible task, not to mention that Haaland will most likely come back.
Stability is getting worse and worse
But rather than reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League, people are more concerned about when Dortmund will be on the right track – or whether this team can really be on the right path under Roze.
Before the match with Rangers, Rozer also said that the current focus of work is to make the team's performance and performance more stable. Such a "crow's mouth" proves that Roze is well aware of his team's problems. In fact, it is not just Rozer, anyone who has been following Dortmund's trend this season is well aware that this team lacks the stability that a strong team should have.
Rozer's tuning of Dortmund was not ideal.
Last season, Borussia Dortmund, led by interim manager Terzic, crossed the line with eight consecutive wins in official matches, winning the German Cup and winning the Bundesliga against Eintracht Frankfurt and receiving tickets to the Champions League. But so far this season, Borussia Dortmund have won just four straight wins, and that happened at the beginning of the season (late August to mid-September last year). Since then, Borussia Dortmund have only lost once in a row (1-3 at home to Ajax in the Champions League at the beginning of November and 2-1 in the league away to Leipzig RB), but only two in a row (late September to mid-October, late October). And since last November, Borussia Dortmund have only won one straight (the bundesliga started with consecutive wins over Frankfurt and Freiburg), and in 17 official matches, they have achieved a "symmetrical record" of 8 wins, 1 draw and 8 losses – winning 12 of their first 16 games and losing only 4 times. Obviously, the results and stability are getting worse and worse.
Since entering 2022, Dortmund has simply turned on "random mode". They were able to cleanly beat the "dark horse" Freiburg at home, followed by St. Pauli's away defeat; after beating rivals Hoffenheim 3-2 away, Dortmund was immediately beaten 5-2 at home by Bayer Leverkusen; last Sunday they beat the League of Berlin, which had never been beaten away before, but was defeated by the Rangers with the same 4231 formation and the same starting 11.
"We played a lot of meaningless football"
Rozer has been taking over the team for more than 9 months, except for the first round of the league's 5-2 home game at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, which made people see the "workers' football" he proposed at the beginning of his tenure, and the content of other matches is mostly wrong. And along the way, it is not so much that Rozer has transformed Dortmund, but rather that the players who do not have their own tastes are changing Rozer and making his coaching gradually deviate from his original intention.
Hummels expressed dissatisfaction with the team's often easy loss of the ball.
Previously coaching Borussia Monchengladbach, Roze has already made the team mark his mark in just one or two months, and the "frontcourt trident" composed of Prea, Thuram Jr. and Embolo quickly reached a tacit understanding, playing the role of the team's locomotive, and the kind of rough and thin rapid conversion of play finally exchanged for the ideal result of returning to the top 4 in the league rankings. In contrast, in Dortmund today, in addition to relying on Haaland's impact and goals, what other reliable tricks does Rozer have? No, relying on Mullen to fight alone is also a timeless time.
In short, Rozer looked less and less skilled. Of course, such a neurotic team, replaced by other coaches, may not have recruited. Hummels pointed out after the game: "What the coach said, we didn't do it in many positions. When do you pass what kind of ball, where is the risk good and which positions are bad? What I'm saying, you can say, is not our forte. ”
Old Hu also explained the essence of Dortmund's "nerve knife": "We played a lot of meaningless football. Play like that, and you'll win sometimes, and you'll lose sometimes. But you'll never succeed in that kick. "How can it be changed?" The headline here is: rigorous, success-oriented football. ”