Opinion: Peter Stoger has sucked the life out of Borussia Dortmund
By Tushar Bahl
Peter Stoger’s luck finally ran out last night as Borussia Dortmund tasted an embarrassing defeat against RB Salzburg.
It was another one in the long list of abject performances that we have seen since Peter Stoger took charge in December. The difference is that this time, they did not get the luck they had been getting till now. Borussia Dortmund have been gutless and drab under their Austrian manager. Players do not seem to know what to do, and they are depending on fluky performances to get points on the board.
I cannot remember for the life of me, a game which Borussia Dortmund have dominated for the entire 90 minutes under Stoger. There have been some good moments at times, but they have generally only lasted for small periods of 15-30 minutes, which is simply not good enough, especially considering the quality of the opposition Dortmund have faced.
There does not seem to be an apparent tactic or style of play. Even if you want to be pragmatic, at least don’t concede sloppy goals and hit the opposition hard on the counter attack. But nope, we haven’t seen any of that from Borussia Dortmund. Instead what we have seen is a lack of cohesion and footballing identity.
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At least Peter Bosz had a philosophy, and he did not give up on it until the very last second. All Peter Stoger does is hope for the best. One can only imagine how much worse it would have been against Real Madrid and Tottenham, had Stoger been in charge, that too, when Dortmund’s Champions League campaign was already really bad.
Borussia Dortmund have games of massive importance coming up in the league, with Frankfurt, Bayern, Schalke and Leverkusen all set to face Der BVB in the league in the next few months. And based on Dortmund’s performances under Stoger this season, they will have no trouble in picking them apart, and Dortmund players will be able to do nothing about it.
Borussia Dortmund’s season is in serious danger of unraveling, and the prospect of playing Champions League football next season looks bleak at the moment.
How did Stoger get the job in the first place?
Stoger has simply sucked the life out of Borussia Dortmund and they are now unbearable to watch. One has to wonder just how he convinced Watzke into appointing him as manager, just a week after being sacked by the then winless Koln. Yes, the time was right to sack Peter Bosz, but there were plenty of better options available to replace him.
The decision to appoint him in the first place showed Dortmund’s lack of ambition. It was said that Stoger would bring in stability at the club, but he has ended up making it much worse, when it looked to be impossible.
The next manager (IF Dortmund decide not to continue with Stoger next season, and that is a big if) faces a daunting task of trying to erase all the damage Stoger has caused to the football brains of these players.
And with the mentality of the decision makers at Dortmund, not many ambitious or big managers will want to take up that task.