The Pot 4 Club – Borussia Dortmund

We all know everything about the major clubs that play Champions League football year-in, year-out, right? Pot 1 – with its Chelseas, Arsenals and Real Madrids – is old news. Pot 4 is where the fun’s at. The Pot 4 Club is a feature on Just Football providing you analysis of all eight Pot 4 clubs, with the lowdown from the writers who know them best. Next up, Terry Duffelen assesses German champions Borussia Dortmund.

Club: Borussia Dortmund

Straight outta’: Germany

Group: F – with Arsenal, Olympique Marseille and Olympiakos

Background / Recent History

Thanks to the exploits of their club in the Europa League, plus an unlikely run to the Champions League Final, by Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga have gained an extra place at the European top table.

With its seemingly endless supply of young players emerging from their youth ranks the German top division is becoming a competition that discerning football fans are paying attention to. Another aspect of the Bundesliga’s charm is its unpredictability. While it is rare for too many seasons to pass without Bayern winning a title, the league has thrown up a couple of interesting winners in recent years the latest being Borussia Dortmund who romped away with the title last season.

Dortmund were a club that very nearly went bust after its financial excesses of the early part of the last decade. Recovery has been slow, deliberately, as the club reconstructed itself, took back control of its stadium and slowly rebuilt the playing squad.

The football was pretty awful under coach, Thomas Doll before the club appointed Jurgen Klopp from Mainz in 2008, Slowly, the floppy haired uber-demonstrative Svengali developed a team of players that entered the 2010/11 season with realistic hopes of qualify for the Champions League. In fact, Bortmund ended up comfortable winners playing some of the best league football in Europe.

Despite losing their first match at home to Leverkusen, BVB burst out of the blocks with a ferocious blend of high tempo passing and hard core pressing. Headline makers were the midfielder Nuri Sahin who seemed able to occupy two positions at once. Shinji Kagawa, fresh from the J-League at a rock bottom price, proved to be the signing of the season with his prodigious skill, intelligence and imagination. Sven Bender, the defensive midfielder made life much easier for the two central defenders, Matts Hummells and Nevan Subotic.

Up front, Lucas Barrios the man from Buenos Aires who plays for Paraguay adapted his predominantly target man role to Klopp’s modern style tactics. He proved comfortable with the ball in withdrawn areas. Kevin Grosskreutz is perhaps underrated as people tend to focus on his bouncy, brash approach to talking to the media. The young Polish striker Robert Lewandowski proved an able stand in for Barrios when the striker was injured.

One to Watch

Then of course, there is Mario Götze. The 19-year-old phenom is an attacking midfielder who has been likened to Lio Messi. The comparison may be premature but when you see him gliding across the grass, ball at his feet, drifting passed perfectly good full back and defensive midfielders, play a killer pass or score a wonderful goal, you can understand why people are getting very excited at the prospect of seeing this player in action.

In short, if Mario Goetze fulfills his potential, then everyone else may as well pack up and go home.

This season’s major change to the squad is the departure of Nuri Sahin to Real Madrid. Klopp brought in another young midfielder, Ilkay Gundogan, to succeed Sahin from Nürnberg. Gundogan is a lovely player to watch, different to his predecessor. Sahin is very difficult to replace because of his versatility. In time, Gundogan,  will impose his own style on the team. Another interesting signing is the Croatian attacking midfielder Ivan Perisic, from Club Brugge.

Tactics

Tactically, Dortmund should line up as 4-3-2-1 but the emphasis of Klopp’s team is on flexibility so don’t expect the attackers to be in the same place throughout the game.

Stadium

If you’re looking to travel to the Westfalen Stadium, you’re in for a treat. The Bratwurst is delicious, the stadium is tall and imposing and even though the vast Sud Tribune will have a reduced capacity due to UEFA’s all seater regulations, it will still be an impressive sight.

Prediction

Borussia Dortmund are one of three teams in the Champions League who are relatively new to the competition. They, along with Napoli and Lille have exciting teams but with very little recent European pedigree. This makes it very hard to predict how they will do in the Champions League. However, is there is a must watch fixture from the German club’s group it is the matches against Arsenal.  Two teams, ruthlessly committed to playing beautiful football.

If Borussia Dortmund are as good as I and many others think they are then there is every chance that they will still be playing Champions League football after the Winter Break.

Next up in The Pot 4 Club – Czech maestros Viktoria Plzen. Follow Just Football on Twitter to keep updated.

Terry Duffelen is a German club football blogger and podcaster and co-host of the Bundesliga Show. Be sure to check out the Bundesliga Lounge.

Borussia Dortmund, Champions League, German Bundesliga, Germany, The Pot 4 Club