Borussia Dortmund in crisis: knockout game for Sahin?

Borussia Dortmund in crisis: knockout game for Sahin?

Borussia Dortmund in crisis
Sahin’s knockout game?


There’s a crisis at Borussia Dortmund. Before the DFB Cup game against Wolfsburg, the pressure on coach Nuri Sahin is growing. Did BVB gamble away with the longing for the smell of the stable?

The train journey from Dortmund to the Autostadt Wolfsburg takes almost exactly 2.5 hours. For BVB it is a trip to the crisis area this Tuesday. Not only because the car giant VW is currently faltering, but also because the team is visiting a foreign place – at VfL Wolfsburg. The Black and Yellows have played five games away from home this season. The result: three defeats, just one measly point. Only in the first round of the DFB Cup was there a win against fourth division team Phoenix Lübeck.

The season is only eight weeks old and there is already a sense of crisis in Dortmund, although everything should be getting better with the new coach and former player Nuri Sahin. But as gray as autumn is at the moment, BVB’s performance is also weak. Sahin had the worst start to the season in ten years. Only 7th place in the league, lost 2:5 by Real Madrid in the Champions League, plus an embarrassing 1:2 against Augsburg. Now the DFB Cup match against the Wolves. Maybe a knockout game for Sahin in the truest sense of the word?

Should Borussia Dortmund be eliminated, the air will become thinner – and not just for Sahin

One thing is certain: Since the 35-year-old has been on the sidelines, BVB has had more construction sites than before. His tactical plan to basically play through the middle ended in fiasco time and time again. The discussion about positioning Marcel Sabitzer on the wing and sticking with the weakening captain Emre Can caused unrest shortly after he took office. A grotesque series of injuries is now doing the rest. Before the game against Wolfsburg, only a shambles remained of the highly decorated team. It is quite possible that Sahin will have to rely on one or two players from the second team in order to get a complete team on the pitch. In summary: BVB is reeling. And the coach doesn’t exactly seem like he has everything under control.

If the Borussia actually say goodbye to the DFB Cup in the second round, the air will become thinner. Not just for Sahin. The management team around Aki Watzke, Sebastian Kehl, Lars Ricken and Matthias Sammer will also be asked why BVB is now on HSV’s course when it comes to coaching changes.

The smell of the stable in the coaching position is the longing for true love – nine years after Jürgen Klopp

External trainers such as Peter Bosz, Lucien Favre and Marco Rose ultimately failed due to a lack of support from the fans. Now it seems as if the most important criterion for the position is the much-vaunted “stable smell”. A coach from the stands, touchable, approachable. First Edin Terzic, now Nuri Sahin. There is still the desperate longing for great love between management, team and fans – nine years after the departure of Jürgen Klopp. The grief still doesn’t seem to be over.

Before and during his first major crisis, Sahin faced several questions: Will he get the time he needs as a young coach to establish himself in the professional business? Are there any approaches that promise improvement? Or is the second largest club in Germany (still) a size too big for the former playmaker?

When referee Daniel Siebert blows the whistle at 10:30 p.m., it will become clear which direction BVB’s season is heading. And whether the only crisis in Wolfsburg remains that of VW.

Source: Stern

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