Borussia Dortmund loanees: The final verdict on Dzenis Burnic

This will be the third article of “Final Verdict” series. The focus of this is to analyze how our loanees have fared this season and if they should stay at the club. This article will talk about Dzenis Burnic and his journey in the Bundesliga 2 and whether he has a future at Borussia Dortmund.

Promotion to the senior team

To say that Burnic earned a role in the first team is a bit of an exaggeration. Burnic’s debut with the senior team came in the 11th of February of 2017 in a match against SV Darmstadt. Dortmund lost that match 2-1 and Burnic earned himself a yellow card. He was filling in for Marc Bartra at the CB position in a match prior to Dortmund’s round of 16 matchup against Benfica in the Champions League.

Apart from that, Burnic saw himself captaining the U-19 squad for the rest of the season. The team managed to win the U-19 tournament on a nail-biting final against Bayern Munich which saw Dortmund beat the Bavarians on penalties. Burnic showed he has all the qualities of a solid captain, but he just simply couldn’t break it into Dortmund’s starting XI.

Time at Stuttgart

Dzenis Burnic was sent away on loan before the start of the 17/18 season to VfB Stuttgart. Burnic was joining a Stuttgart side that had just achieved promotion back into the Bundesliga and was characterized for playing a 3-4-2-1 with multiple defensive midfielders. That same summer Stuttgart bought a lot of defensive midfielders including, Argentine youngster Santiago Ascaibar, veteran Dennis Aogo, and teenager Orel Mangala.  Burnic was brought mostly to serve a backup role with a chance at the starting XI if he outplayed the other youngsters.

Burnic earned his debut in a match against Borussia Monchengladbach. With his team being 2 goals down in the 78th minute, Burnic made his bow replacing Orel Mangala. After 90 minutes the score remained 2-0 marking his debut in a Stuttgart jersey. Burnic couldn’t outplay fellow defensive midfielders and was just used as a substitute all season long. He finished with just 6 appearances and a red card earned against Hamburg. It was a very disappointing season for him.

Return to Dortmund

Back at Dortmund, Burnic saw how the team had gotten rid of Gonzalo Castro and veteran Nuri Sahin. This meant that Dortmund only had Julian Weigl and Mahmoud Dahoud as central midfielders. Even though it wasn’t the ideal position, he could fight for playing time against Dahoud. Unluckily that same summer, Dortmund replaced both midfielders with Axel Witsel and Thomas Delany.

Unfortunately for him, those two transfers made it near impossible for Burnic to see playing time. Because of this, he was relegated to Dortmund II, where he played the first half of the season making 11 appearances.

Loan to Dynamo Dresden

Dynamo Dresden were fresh off another campaign in the Bundesliga 2 that saw them finish in the 14th spot. Under manager Uwe Neuhaus, Dresden would line up in a 4-3-3 with a defensive midfielder. Neuhaus’s defensive mid of choice had been veteran midfielder Manuel Konrad playing in 28 games that past season.

At the summer prior to the 2018/19 season, Konrad’s contract was due, and he opted for joining third division team KFC Uerdingen 05 for free. That caused Dresden to buy Jannis Nikolaou from third division side, Würzburger Kickers. Nikolaou was coming off a strong season with 36 appearances, alongside with 6 goals and 3 assists as a defensive midfielder making him the perfect replacement for Konrad.

Uwe Neuhaus would prefer to experiment at the defensive midfielder position placing Patrick Ebert and Rico Benatelli there until his sacking in the fourth matchday. Interim coach Maik Walpurgis would then start Nikolaou all the way until the winter transfer window. Sitting at a comfortable 10th position, Walpurgis brought Dzenis Burnic on loan to serve as depth in the defensive midfielder position.

Season at Dynamo Dresden

Dzenis Burnic would have to wait until the 11th of February to make his debut against Hamburg. Surprisingly, he played in the left back role in a 1-0 defeat and outplayed his whole team. He had a 86% successful tackling rate alongside 82% passing accuracy. In his next game, his numbers were pretty much the same.

This was a new, more mature Burnic playing as a LB. Prior to his next game, coach Walpurgis was sacked and replaced by Cristian Fiél. Fiél would play Burnic as a defensive midfielder shifting Nikolaou to center back to make room for him. For the remainder of the season, Burnic would stay at the CDM role excelling at it. According to WhoScored, Burnic was the highest rated Dresden player with a 6.97 rating.

Future at Dortmund

Dzenis Burnic will be returning to Dortmund for the 19/20 season after his best half a season with a senior team. In Dortmund, the current roster includes Thomas Delaney, Julian Weigl, Axel Witsel, and Mahmoud Dahoud. Currently, the defensive midfielder position is at a perfect state, but with rumors of Dortmund willing to sell Julian Weigl for 30 million euros could potentially give playing time to Burnic.

But if Weigl leaves, its likely that Borussia Dortmund will sign a replacement. Burnic himself is being linked with a permanent transfer away from Dortmund, so its unlikely that he will get his chance at the Westfalenstadion.

Final Verdict

Burnic’s career at Dortmund might be just starting. Burnic has just had 2 appearances with Dortmund’s senior team, and his performance at Dresden was very eye-opening. If we do end up selling Julian Weigl, Burnic could fit in as the perfect homegrown replacement.

My final verdict is that Burnic should stay at Borussia Dortmund and see if he can impress Lucien Favre during preseason. He has been very unlucky so far, but maybe his fortunes could reverse this summer.