Comment on Borussia Dortmund’s defeat at Bayern Munich: Not a single deficit

“Technically, tactically, mentally – a single deficit,” said Thomas Tuchel as coach of Borussia Dortmund in November 2016. Under Tuchel, BVB lost 5-1 and 4-1 to Bayern Munich. The new FCB coach joined the nine-season negative series in which Dortmund were no longer able to win games in Munich.

However, Tuchel did not choose his blustering words after one of the two bankruptcies at the record champions, but after a 1-2 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. However, the constant lack of chances surrounding Borussia during performances in Bavaria’s state capital is very reminiscent – especially this time, with Tuchel as the opposing coach – of his criticism at the time.

However, BVB in Munich is not a single deficit, but one that has now lasted nine games. Dortmund was never really at eye level with the industry leader in these nine matches, instead they conceded at least two goals each time and accumulated a disastrous goal difference of 8:37 hits.

Of course, each of the games could be evaluated and commented on individually, which was done at this point – for example here. And yet the course of the game is not similar for the first time, it now seems to be more than just a coincidence.

BVB’s decline in Munich is the rule rather than the exception

BVB captain Marco Reus expressed the hope that “we will be ready”. “We want to prove that we are different than we have been there in recent years,” said his coach Edin Terzic. Terzic didn’t really want to look at the previous years in Munich, but rather see a learning process with his current team.

In comparable duels at Chelsea (0:2) or in the first half of the season at RB Leipzig (0:3), when another former Dortmund coach, Marco Rose, was on the sidelines for the first time, they acted far below their level and in each case completely earned lost. Terzic cited the game in the Champions League at Manchester City (1:2), which ended up being lost, as a good example when BVB was the better team against a stronger team for a long time.

But the hoped-for learning process did not materialize. Just like he doesn’t come when Borussia go to Munich – even the staffing doesn’t matter. It also doesn’t matter whether BVB got into the game well or led 2-0 like two years ago. The fact that Dortmund collapses like a house of cards with Bayern at the first setback is the rule rather than the exception.

BVB at Bayern like a traumatic phenomenon

BVB then completely loses its orientation, leaves the match plan as a team, wanders around individually outside of the positions and is lost as a whole team in the momentum vortex of FCB. Certainly, FC Bayern has the necessary quality in its ranks to take advantage of such phases. In addition, the greed to continue to hurt the biggest rival of the past few years.

In these moments it seems as if it is almost a traumatic phenomenon: BVB wants to break the negative run, but fails and only gradually frees itself from the dilemma when the game is already decided. Bayern, on the other hand, are aware of this weakness and attack with great self-confidence at just the right time.

“We will definitely not use this word in preparation,” Terzic replied at the press conference on Friday when he was confronted with the term “trauma” in relation to Dortmund’s series of bankruptcies. On Saturday night, the BVB coach said it was disappointing that “we stopped fighting back” after the 0-1 draw.

BVB: No other face, even as the leader of the table

It is worrying that even the energy, confidence and euphoria that the Black and Yellows accumulated through the successful weeks in 2023 did not help Bayern to show a different face. Even the return of injured top performers and the almost unique opportunity to distance FCB by four points as leaders in the table did not lead to an essentially different performance than in previous years.

The championship was not decided on this 26th matchday. Maybe he even confirmed to the Dortmund team what is important in the further squad change that was initiated last summer: Namely, putting together a resilient and resilient and hierarchically homogeneously structured squad that is able to do so in the long term to shake off setbacks together – not only, but also in Munich.

BVB vs. FC Bayern Munich: The rest of the program in the Bundesliga