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Borussia Dortmund vs Mainz Post Match Comments

By John Harbeck

MAINZ, GERMANY - JANUARY 29: Marcel Schmelzer of Dortmund (L-R), Danny Latza of Mainz and Yoshinori Muto of Mainz fight for the ball during the Bundesliga match between 1. FSV Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund at Opel Arena on January 29, 2017 in Mainz, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty Images)
MAINZ, GERMANY - JANUARY 29: Marcel Schmelzer of Dortmund (L-R), Danny Latza of Mainz and Yoshinori Muto of Mainz fight for the ball during the Bundesliga match between 1. FSV Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund at Opel Arena on January 29, 2017 in Mainz, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty Images) /
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Not much good can be said from the last gasp draw against Mainz over the weekend.  In the post match comments, we have Borussia Dortmund’s own Thomas Tuchel, Marcel Schmelzer and Julian Weigl.

Starting with Borussia Dortmund boss Tuchel when asked what annoyed him the most after the match:

"“The fact that we lost our identity! I got the feeling we were happy to sit back and defend. Our mentality seemed to suggest that we thought it was simply a case of battling and that we would manage to win it somehow and take a 1-0 victory home with us. We simply weren’t active enough. That is the main point of criticism I have. We didn’t have the courage to move ourselves further forward and thus calm the game down. In fact the match started to be played from one penalty area to the other. The ball spent more time in the air than it did on the ground. We did not make use of our opportunities to switch the play either, otherwise we could have won. It can always happen that you are punished like that late on.”"

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In all my commentary of the match, I’ve discussed just how poor Borussia Dortmund have become after taking the lead.  Since the winter break, the club consistently takes their foot off the gas pedal after only 15 minutes.  Tuchel clearly sees this happening and it remains to be seen if he can change it.  His job might depend on it.

Next up is captain Schmelzer:

"“I’m not disappointed, I’m angry,”"

It is nice to see the captain taking a proactive approach to the disappointment.  In soccer there is only so much a manager can do in terms of in-game adjustments.  He can do things tactically, but it up to the players to bring the intensity and desire to continue on for more goals.  Hopefully, in the future Schmelzer can inspire the squad to continue to look for opportunities and it is nice to see he is invested enough to register anger.

Finally from Weigl:

"“It really hurts to have conceded that goal. It was a difficult match, that pitch was not easy to play on. Mainz made it very, very difficult for us. Nevertheless we accepted the fight and dug in with everything we had. That makes it even tougher to take that we conceded a goal like that at the end. We needed to defend that better. Nonetheless, there had been enough opportunities at the other end to kill the game earlier.”"

Next: Post game: BVB vs Mainz by the numbers

All told I almost agree with Weigl.  The pitch wasn’t the usual best BVB enjoy at home and Mainz were frequently putting all eleven men well within their own half.  Borussia Dortmund didn’t have many passing lanes and it was a difficult time going forward.  Without one counter attack, BVB would have come away with an uninspiring 1-0 win.  Where I don’t agree with Weigl is that a different method needs to be used to create goals against a packed in defense.  Lumping balls up to Aubameyang isn’t the answer and the wide players are certainly creative enough to isolate them on the wings against Mainz.

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