Borussia Dortmund drop points against Werder Bremen at home

Borussia Dortmund dropped points yet again in the Bundesliga against an inferior opponent, this time drawing against Werder Bremen.

Borussia Dortmund dominated Werder Bremen for the majority of the game today but sloppy defending and lack of motivation had them dropping points again in the Bundesliga. This 2-2 draw is yet another frustrating result for a Dortmund team that clearly has significant issues playing when they have a lead. Marco Reus blasted the media accusations of a lack of mentality being a cause for recent results, and although it’s not the only factor there’s no doubt there are some issues with mentality when Dortmund are playing with the lead.

Dortmund started the game on the front foot taking the play to Bremen as they struggled to maintain any sort of possession. It was out of nowhere that Milot Rashica put Bremen up 1-0. Hakimi was ball chasing and got dragged completely out of position, when Dortmund then lost possession quickly Rashica was wide open on Hakimi’s wing and Akanji was too far away to get there in time. Rashica blasted a volley past Burki who stood no chance.

Only a few minutes later Dortmund would equalize off some equally suspect defending from Bremen. Piszczek whipped an exceptional cross all the way to the back post and Gotze beat Lang in the air to head it past Pavlenka. From there, Dortmund continued to dominate, finally scoring again in the 41st minute. Thorgan Hazard found Marco Reus on a cross from just outside the 18  yard box and Reus would also score with his head. Going into the break, Dortmund had dominated through 45 minutes and had the lead, seemingly fully in control of the game.

Once again, Borussia Dortmund take the lead and then take their foot off the gas pedal. If Dortmund just played the entire game as if they  were down 1-0 they would be crushing these opponents. Instead, the same thing happens every time, they get the lead back and then fail to continue performing at the same level. There was very little chance creation and when they did create a chance they weren’t able to make it count, where have we seen this before. Then the inevitable comes to pass, Bremen score off a corner. This was horrendous marking, this should be a clear example to Lucien Favre of why Dortmund have to switch from zone marking to man to man on corners. Sargent beat Reus to the short post header and flashed it across goal to THREE Bremen players unmarked at the back post. That just can’t happen in a one goal game, but unfortunately it did, and not for the first time.

In the end, Borussia Dortmund had chances to re-take the lead but they had lost their swagger after sitting back and Bremen were able to break up their attacks more and more throughout the second half. Two more dropped points and Dortmund are now 3 points behind Bayern and 2 points behind Leipzig having really only played one top opponent.

Dortmund have conceded first in 4 of the 6 Bundesliga games so far this season. In every single one of these games they have been able to equalize instead of going down 2-0. There is a clear cause for concern that Dortmund are clearly not ready for the game off the start and then the other giant warning sign that they have an inability to maintain the same motivation once they score to equalize or take back the lead.