Mario Götze is back. Can he reclaim his spot at Borussia Dortmund?

At the time of his injury in the Revierderby , Mario Götze looked his best since returning to Dortmund in the summer of 2016. Left out of the lineup consistently under former manager Thomas Tuchel, Götze seemed to have the full trust of Peter Bosz.

Bosz too can now add his name to the list of former BVB managers after he was sacked roughly six weeks ago. Peter Stöger is the man in charge now on the Borussia Dortmund touchline. It will be interesting to see if Götze will have to earn his spot back.

Stöger has stated numerous times that despite the public disapproval of Bosz, he did in fact do many things right. One of those things was helping Götze to re-establish himself as the engine of the BVB attack.

At the time of his injury “Super” Mario was a top five-rated central attacking midfielder in the Bundesliga as well as consistently being one of the highest-rated players on the pitch for Die Schwarz-Gelben. 

With the rumors swirling this month of possible Dortmund roster moves, including the return of midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian star has fallen out of the good graces of Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho and may be looking to make a move.

Where would such a move leave Götze? Mkhitaryan was primarily a winger for Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund squad in 2015-16, but did start nine matches as an attacking midfielder. In that aspect, many saw Götze as his direct replacement.

Regardless of whether or not Hans-Joachim Watzke or Michael Zorc pursue another midfield player this winter, Peter Stöger is not Peter Bosz. With back-to-back league wins in front of the winter break, BVB have positive momentum with the start of the Rückrunde less than two weeks away.

This momentum was attained without the presence of Götze on the pitch. As BVB prepares for the second half of the 2017-18 season, Götze has joined the team at training camp in Spain, looking to reassert himself as the first-choice CAM.

Will Götze reclaim his spot?

When Dortmund plays Wolfsburg in a few weeks in the Rückrunde-opener, Peter Stöger will have had a full winter break preparation behind him and six weeks to implement his ideal tactical approach. Will Mario Götze be a part of those plans?

More from BVB Buzz

• Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund: How to watch, live stream info and more
• Opinion: Borussia Dortmund’s win over Freiburg far more narrow than scoreline suggests
• Expected Borussia Dortmund lineup vs Paris Saint-Germain
• Bundesliga Roundup: Serhou Guirassy, Xavi Simons, Mats Hummels star on matchday four
• Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund: Team News, Preview

Logically, yes. There is no player on the Dortmund roster who has out-performed Mario Götze this season. This, combined with the imminent return of Marco Reus, is the perfect shot of adrenaline for the struggling Dortmund offense.

We have yet to see what Reus and Götze are capable of since Mario’s return to the Ruhrgebiet after his three years with Bayern Munich. In the past two seasons these BVB stars have played less then 100 minutes together.

Regardless of what formation Stöger opts to go with moving forward, Mario Götze should be his absolute go-to guy. What Thiago Alcantara was to Pep in Munich, so too should Mario Götze be to Peter Stöger.

As Dortmund looks to reclaim second place in the Bundesliga from arch-rivals Schalke and redeem themselves in the Europa League after their embarrassing showing in the Champions League, we should all expect to see a healthy Mario Götze pick up where he left off in November as BVB’s most valuable player.