7th after 8 games 

©TM/IMAGO

Confirmation of Borussia Dortmund’s dreadful start to the new season was more or less clear for all to see on Wednesday night when club sporting director Sebastian Kehl provided the dreaded vote of confidence to his head coach Nuri Sahin, following a 1-0 defeat to Wolfsburg in the German Cup. When asked what the result meant for Sahin’s future at the club, Kehl offered a strong response: “Nothing… except that we are all disappointed. The coach is also very disappointed. The pressure is always there at Borussia, as the reaction of the fans shows. We are lagging behind our expectations, and we will work on that.” 

However, while Kehl may be putting on a brave face in front of the camera and German media, the Black and Yellows will likely be furious behind closed doors at how this season has so far played out. Alongside an early elimination from the German Cup, Sahin’s side were also recently humbled in the Champions League by Real Madrid, when the Spanish champions overturned a two-goal deficit in the first half to win the match 5-2. Couple that with just four wins from their first eight leagues and there’s little doubt that Sahin is unquestionably feeling the pressure ahead of a difficult clash with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga on Saturday. And, unfortunately for the young head coach, his struggles seem to exemplify everything that the German giants have done wrong since Jürgen Klopp departed the club in 2015. 

Dortmund’s failure to take advantage of Bayern’s struggles

Naturally, any club that wants to win league titles in Germany must first make sure they pick up more points than Bayern Munich. And while Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen side did exactly that last season, Dortmund have failed time after time to not only mount serious title challenges against their Munich rivals but also take advantage of situations when Bayern are down on their luck. As we can see in the table above, which shows the final points tallies for Bayern and Dortmund over the course of the last 10 seasons, the Munich giants have actually seen their dominance of the German top-flight diminish with more or less every passing year, to the point that last season’s return of just 72 points and the season before’s return of 71 points were the club’s worst since 2010. As previously noted, Leverkusen made the most of last season’s struggles to win their first ever Bundesliga title. But the season before saw Dortmund lead in the title race for much of the season, until a final-day 2-2 draw with Mainz saw Dortmund tip at the last hurdle and allow a dreadful Bayern team to win the league title on goal difference. 

While Dortmund were unlucky not to win the title that season, fans of the club will point to the fact that it was only the second time in the last 10 seasons that the club have come even remotely close to matching Bayern’s return in the Bundesliga. To the constant frustration of fans of the club, whenever Bayern drop off in the league, so too do Dortmund. As we can see in the 19/20 to 21/22 run of form, as well as last season’s dreadful return of just 63 points won. Like this current campaign, Dortmund are often incapable of rivalling Bayern for league titles even if the Munich giants are struggling to pick up points, simply because their Westfalen rivals simply aren’t good enough. And, seems to be the case this season, that can often come down to the club not appointing head coaches that are capable of getting the best out of their players. 

Dortmund’s lacklustre head coaches

If we take a look at the managers that Dortmund have hired since Klopp departed the club in 2014, it perhaps points us to the crux of the problem at the Bundesliga club. Thomas Tuchel was seen as a worthy successor to Klopp and achieved a points tally of 78 in his first season at the club that has yet to be matched ever since, but he left the club a little over two years into the job because of reported in-fighting between him and the board. And while the coaches that have followed since may not have kicked up as many storms as Tuchel, they also haven’t had the same ambition or talent as the new England national team head coach and it has undoubtedly cost Dortmund points in the league. And we need only run through the list to see how few of them have gone to greater success since failing at Dortmund and then leaving the Westfalenstadion. 

For example, Peter Bosz succeeded Tuchel at Dortmund to very little success after averaging just 1.47 points per game in the league and went on to very little success at Bayer Leverkusen, then Olympique Lyon, before returning to the Eredivisie to coach PSV. Then came Peter Stöger, who had earned plenty of respect as head coach of FC Köln but also struggled at Dortmund and has since stumbled around Austrian and Turkish football in different roles and is now a sporting director in the second tier of the Austria Bundesliga. Lucien Favre then came next and actually did have a decent record as Dortmund manager, as he guided the club to a genuine title race in the aforementioned 18/19 campaign. But he too struggled for work since leaving the German club and took a two-year hiatus before joining Nice in Ligue 1, which lasted a little over six months before he was relieved of his duties. 

Since then, Dortmund have instead turned their attention towards appointing young head coaches in the same way that they’ve successfully scouted young players in the transfer market. This began by promoting youth team head coach Edin Terzic to the role, following the departure of Favre. However, Terzic struggled in his first season at the club and could only take Dortmund to third, before the club then opted for a promising head coach at Borussia Mönchengladbach in Marco Rose. The former Foals boss should have worked out well for Dortmund and enjoyed a solid record of 2.03 points per league game, but often found himself butting heads with the board over signings and the club’s overall ambition much like Tuchel six years before him. As such, Dortmund then sacked Rose in favour of bringing Terzic back to the dugout. But following the final-day slip up in the 22/23 title race and the club slumping to fifth place the following season, as Terzic prioritised an unexpected run to the Champions League final, Dortmund then parted ways with Terzic in the summer and instead opted to promote his assistant coach, Sahin. 

While every head coach is different and much has changed at Dortmund over the course of the last 10 years, some notable patterns have undoubtedly emerged: when talented head coaches like Tuchel or Rose have been appointed, they’ve found themselves fighting with the club’s hierarchy before being relieved of their duties. But in every other case, Dortmund have instead opted for easier appointments, by bringing in head coaches that are either delighted to even have a shot at coaching a club of Dortmund’s side (such as Bosz, Stöger or Favre) or by promoted coaches from within their own organisation that are unlikely to upset the apple cart. And in each instance, the club itself seems to be getting in the way of its ability to challenge Bayern in the Bundesliga and ultimately its own success.