Is Tuchel To Blame for Dortmund’s Champions League Exit?

DORTMUND, GERMANY — Ever since the explosion that occurred on April 11th, Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel has been in the headlines and tabloids all across the globe. Why? Well, just take a gander at what Tuchel had to say about having to play a match the next day following the attack on the Dortmund bus.

"“We basically had the feeling that we were being treated as if a beer can had hit our bus, and half an hour later the decision was made that (it would be held) tomorrow at 6.45 p.m. And that was the point of time when we were informed. Then it was very unclear how serious the injury of Marc Bartra was and what was behind this incident, that gives you a feeling of powerlessness.” – Thomas Tuchel"

When you accuse UEFA of treating your team like ‘beer cans’ you are asking to make headlines. For Tuchel, headlines are what he got and in the midst of all of the controversy, Tuchel did not deliver on the field as Dortmund lost 6-3 on aggregate to Monaco.

With his comments directed at UEFA overshadowing Dortmund’s lackluster performance on the field, can Thomas Tuchel be blamed for Dortmund’s Champions League exit?

Yes, but not for his comments at UEFA.

Dortmund conceded six goals over the course of two matches against A.S. Monaco, four of which were products of an A.S. Monaco counter-attack. With Dortmund playing a three-back formation featuring only natural centre-back Sokratis (Matthias Ginter has moved around too much for my liking) in the back three.

In fairness, Marc Bartra was out after suffering an injury from the explosion, but the three-back with only one natural centre-back didn’t fair well against Monaco.

In two identical instances, Ginter failed to mark a Monaco striker on a cross that led to a goal for Monaco (Mbappe & Falcao respectively.) Similarly, Łukasz Piszczek gifted Monaco with two midfield turnovers that resulted in a goal off of a successful Monaco counter-attack. Throughout both legs, Ginter and Piszczek were terrible and, their errors cost Dortmund big time.

With his back three crumbling, Thomas Tuchel should have moved away from his three-back formation as it was clear that with only three men back, Dortmund could not stop the Monaco counter-attack.

By spreading out to a back-four, Piszczek at right-back and maybe Schmelzer at left-back, Dortmund would be less susceptible to the counter-attack and, hopefully, Piszczek wouldn’t have to make two many plays with his feet in the middle of the field, thus limiting the number of turnovers.

Defensive tactics have always been Tuchel’s weakness and this Champions League quarterfinal tie was nothing but an illumination of a problem for the Dortmund manager. However, even with his offensive tactics, Tuchel fell short.

At the start of the second leg in Monaco, everyone expected Dortmund to come out aggressively in search of the two goals that they needed to win the tie. But, that was far from the case as Dortmund lacked drive in the first half thus leading them to concede two poor goals to Monaco, who continued to capitalize on Dortmund’s frequent errors.

In the 27th minute, Tuchel took off Erik Durm for Ousmane Dembélé as Dortmund needed a spark. With this early substitution, the question has to be asked of Tuchel, “why not start Dembélé from the beginning?” By sticking with Durm in the midfield, Dortmund lacked attacking options. With Dembélé, Dortmund had attacking options. It is hard to see what Tuchel was thinking by starting Durm over Dembélé as the more attacking option in Dembélé was the obvious choice in a game in which Dortmund needed to score multiple goals.

Thomas Tuchel simply did not have his slate of tactics over the past week and, unfortunately for Dortmund, prevented them from having a fair chance in their tie against Monaco. In Tuchel’s defense, UEFA shouldn’t have made Dortmund play the following day after the explosion and Dortmund did commit horrendous errors in every one of Monaco’s six goals.

But, as Tuchel knows, every critique will fall back on the manager. In this instance, the blame should be deservedly placed on Tuchel, as he failed to deliver or adapt his tactics to best play Monaco thus leading to Dortmund’s exit from the Champions League.

Going forward, Tuchel needs to get his tactics right, as a Champions League berth for next season is anything but secured for the men in black and yellow