Borussia Dortmund Begin 2017 With Win Over PSV

Borussia Dortmund began the second half of their season and the new year in bright fashion in easily handling one of Holland’s finest 4-1.

It is always difficult to gather much from winter break friendlies as many players aren’t back up to full speed and the managers are experimenting with tactics and lineups. However, if one thing can be gained from watching yesterday’s Borussia Dortmund’s performance it is that the club is already prepared to kick on in toward a big 2017.

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The men in yellow had no problem creating chances all afternoon in a slick attacking display and for the most part, limited the PSV chances to a few counters.

The entire match can be found here for those that missed it, but there were several performances that stood out and need remarking. First is that Sokratis Papastathopoulos was back in the eleven for the second half. That second half was where the better play could be found defensively and it is no surprise that Sokratis provided that influence. During his brief injury spell, BVB desperately missed their leader and even in the first half dealing with the counters was, at times, very ragged.

The second performance to make a note of was that of Merino who was played in is natural midfield position, rather than a defensive one. He sprayed long balls in a very similar manner that Julian Weigl does and more importantly looked much more comfortable in his more natural role.

As for the attacking efforts on the day, there are three players who stood out. Marco Reus was influential while he played and despite missing a penalty that would have put Borussia Dortmund up 1-0 in the early going, he came back and amended the mistake with a goal. It wasn’t one that was very pretty, but it was nice to see the penalty miss didn’t take away his aggressive nature.

The player I was most interested to see, however, was Andre Schurrle who was selected as the second half striker. In what was an audition for the Aubameyang minutes while he is away at the African Cup of Nations, Schurrle proved to be a slightly lesser version of the star. He ran the channels with pace and provided a large enough target to do some level of the holdup play. His goal was also one that was pure striker class, taking it off the half volley in one motion.

A final player to note was Kagawa who once again buzzed around all over the attacking third, winning the ball back in dangerous areas and in general seemed to be everywhere. I continue to be in favor of his selection against clubs that will park the bus as his endless energy can be a powerful weapon to exhaust and confuse anyone.

2017 is not underway and BVB finds themselves off to a wonderful start against a solid, if not spectacular PSV side. It should be noted that PSV participated in the Champions League this season. While they didn’t pick up many points, the margins of losses against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid were not large. A nice 4-1 win sets BVB up nicely moving forward.

In friendlies, I tend to focus more on individual performances, rather than taking more broad conclusions so if there is anyone you’d like me to highlight next friendly just shoot a comment below.

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