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Key Takeaways from Borussia Dortmund’s unnecessary loss to Bayer Leverkusen

By Austin Weldon

08 February 2020, North Rhine-Westphalia, Leverkusen: Football: Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund, 21st matchday in the BayArena: Coach Lucien Favre of Dortmund takes a seat on the bench. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the regulations of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and the DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund, it is prohibited to exploit or have exploited in the stadium and/or from the game taken photographs in the form of sequence images and/or video-like photo series. (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images)
08 February 2020, North Rhine-Westphalia, Leverkusen: Football: Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund, 21st matchday in the BayArena: Coach Lucien Favre of Dortmund takes a seat on the bench. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the regulations of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and the DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund, it is prohibited to exploit or have exploited in the stadium and/or from the game taken photographs in the form of sequence images and/or video-like photo series. (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images) /
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LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 08: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally enhanced.) Manuel Akanji (L) of Dortmund and Kevin Volland (R) of Leverkusen in action during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 8, 2020 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Bundesliga/Bundesliga Collection via Getty Images)
LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 08: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally enhanced.) Manuel Akanji (L) of Dortmund and Kevin Volland (R) of Leverkusen in action during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 8, 2020 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Bundesliga/Bundesliga Collection via Getty Images) /

Another dismal performance from Akanji

In the past 12 months Akanji has gone from the backbone of the Dortmund defense to their biggest liability. It’s not like he has lost his pace from his hip injury and is now being burned with that, he still has all of the physical tools that made him so dominant with Dortmund at the beginning of last year. He is constantly being caught completely unaware of his surroundings time and time again and it is costing Dortmund goals and points.

This isn’t an isolated incident either, I had a lot of time for Akanji mistakes but it’s now been a full year of significantly inconsistent play. Today was no different, with Akanji at fault for two of Leverkusen’s very avoidable goals. The first was the Volland goal, when the ball was played through to Volland Akanji was maybe one full step behind Volland, at most. Instead of just staying on his side of Volland and catching him, which he easily could have done he is way faster than Volland. He tries to somewhat cut in behind him, taking himself completely out of the play stopping all his momentum and gifting Volland a breakaway. The simple awareness was completely lacking and this was just very poor decision making.

The second goal was again just a complete lack of awareness in his own 18 yard box in a clear high danger moment. He completely stopped playing and sat flat footed leaving Leon Bailey alone out wide. Yes, Leverkusen would have scored easily if not for an exceptional slide tackle from Emre Can but Akanji completely stopped playing, resulting with the ball in the back of Dortmund’s net yet again.

Once again, this incident by itself is forgivable but how many times has Akanji absolutely stopped playing, checked out and it ends up being his man that scores. It feels like it’s literally every game now it happens so often. Enough is enough, there’s no more excuses to be made he has no business starting for Dortmund.

Glue him to the bench for the time being until he proves he’s able to bring the required attention to detail to his game and find another solution that doesn’t cost you a goal a game.

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