Borussia Dortmund once again made a slip in their 3-2 defeat at Hertha BSC. Coach Marco Rose tries to smooth things over – while he himself experiences BVB in a kind of crash course.
Marco Rose and watched each other a bit Sky-Field reporter Martin Groß does. During the week, Rose made a rather unpleasant acquaintance with the house expert and had a battle of words with Didi Hamann. And now that his team had just lost 3-2 at Kellerkind Hertha BSC and unpleasant questions were to be expected, Rose was even more anxious than usual to be rational.
Dortmund’s coach chose his words with care, and it should have been simmering inside – once again. Rose didn’t want to gloss over anything after a game that Borussia fans had seen so often in recent years. And that the current Borussia team is also performing at irregular intervals this season.
The midweek debate with Hamann revolved around an alleged deficit in the team’s performance, not necessarily a result deficit. And if you listened to sporting director Michael Zorc before the match in Berlin, everything is on target at Borussia. Sure, the Champions League elimination was a big disappointment, but in the Bundesliga and the Cup: things are going well as expected.
In fact, this cannot be contradicted either, with second place in the league, seven points ahead of the first non-Champions League place and reaching the last sixteen, the team hardly offers any attack surface.
“It’s important not to forget that we’re second in the table. I think it was different last year,” said Rose. But: In no other top European league, BVB would be second in the table with their points. Not in England, Spain or Italy. Perhaps the Bundesliga is just too weak per se?
BVB: The basic problems remain
And there is also a perceived truth and it applies: You shouldn’t sell normality more spectacularly than it is. Second place in a league in which the supposedly big clubs like Leipzig, Gladbach, Wolfsburg are weakening considerably, is no surprise with all the problems that BVB has. And against Wehen Wiesbaden and FC Ingolstadt you can also reach the third round in the DFB Cup.
Because little or nothing has changed in the fundamental problems in the club this season. And Marco Rose, for whom, with all due respect for his previous employers, this force and dimensions were uncharted territory, learns in just half a season what it means to be a coach at Borussia Dortmund. In the crash course, Rose takes all ups and downs and has to learn that not everyone around him has the same intrinsic motivation that would actually be a basic requirement for a job at BVB.
But because Rose cannot say that openly and because after the last few days and the history with Hamann he would otherwise be seen as a bad loser, he packed his words on Sky-Micro in a couple of nested sentences. “I say that we lack unconditionality. We are Borussia Dortmund, we want to win here in Berlin. And everyone here has to be able to recognize that – in every minute of the game,” he said, for example.
BVB: The word mentality is on the index
Or: “In the end we have goals and demands and now have to work on the things that make us better. We are Borussia Dortmund and want to win in Berlin, everyone has to recognize that.”
Rose avoided using the word “mentality” as best she could. That has been on the index in Dortmund for a long time. So he insisted on an unconditional attitude and an attitude that every gamer should develop. Which basically means nothing else than: mentality. “We’re not talking about attitudes here,” it was important for Rose to emphasize. “Because it’s clear that the boys want. But we’re talking about attitude. And at the end of the day Berlin beat us with passion and struggle, as other opponents have already done, and deserved the victory.”
Now it wasn’t the case that Hertha didn’t set a few playful accents on a “real field”, as sports director Fredi Bobic had to admit. But other virtues were an integral part and the basis for victory. Those that some Dortmund players can or only want to show in phases. “We have to change our attitude unconditionally, we have to work on it. I don’t want to change the characters of the guys here because they are good guys. But to be maximally successful, you need a little more,” said Rose, which actually was very specific.
BVB: Frugality and lethargy
But the question remains whether all the players in the squad are aware of this? Or whether, as so often in the past, it will be enough this time to give a little gas again in a few important games when the team is up to their necks. Because in the end that’s enough to make it to places two to four.
Ambitious teams that are slowly sliding into a crisis have one thing in common: Almost every player who joins the team deteriorates compared to the performance at their previous club. This phenomenon can perhaps be converted to BVB as follows: For years, the potential bearers of hope sooner or later have been surrounded by dangerous frugality and lethargy. Exceptions like Jude Bellingham or Erling Haaland – and he now had a disturbingly disgruntled appearance in Berlin – confirm the rule.
Rose isn’t the first to grapple with this structural problem. But he is at the forefront of those who have to explain it. Even if he has only been in the club for almost six months and has to deal with enough other difficulties in his area of responsibility – injured, banned, corona sufferers.
Every Borussia Dortmund player has to understand this club. How it ticks, what it stands for, where it wants to go. Simply “just” working for Borussia is not enough – at least not for more than second place and a few highlights in the DFB Cup. But for this, those responsible also have to provide assistance and provide a clear identity and set an example. Marco Rose is to be taken out of duty. But there are others at BVB.
