Borussia Dortmund: Highs and lows from the title-winning 2010/11 season
By Adam Bakr
With the Bundesliga postponed until April at the earliest, it’s a chance to look back at the different Borussia Dortmund seasons over the course of the decade.
Starting with 2010-11, we look at the highs and lows for a Borussia Dortmund side that contains a handful of players still at the club, but in very different parts of their careers.
High: Winning the League
The peak of this season was clear, as Borussia Dortmund won their seventh Bundesliga title and their first since the 2001-02 season. The side took a big jump in Jurgen Klopp’s third year in charge, climbing from finishing fifth with 57 points the year before to a 75 point total, enough to lift the Meisterschale.
Borussia Dortmund lost their first game of the season at home to Bayer Leverkusen, but then went on to win 14 of their next 15 games on their way to finishing the Hinrunde with 43 points as the winter champions. Despite not replicating the same form in the Rückrunde, it was a lead they would never lose, and after beating Nurnberg 2-0 at the Westfalenstadion the side were crowned champions with two games left to go.
The side was built on its defence, and the backline of Marcel Schmelzer, Łukasz Piszczek, Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic led Dortmund to the best defence in the Bundesliga in front of Roman Weidenfeller.
They conceded just 22 goals in 34 games, 17 fewer than the next best defensive record. The backline was consistent and reliable, with the entire back four and goalie starting at least 40 games in all competitions and 30 games in the league.
The side also boasted the league’s second best attack. It was a balanced offense, led by Lucas Barrios with 16 goals in the league. Robert Lewandowski, Shinji Kagawa and Kevin Großkreutz all had eight goals, while Mario Götze and Nuri Sahin each found the net six times for a side that saw its goals distributed across the attack.
Some of the highlight wins from the campaign came on the road, beating Schalke, Bayern Munich and Leverkusen, all by the same 3-1 scoreline. Dortmund nearly went undefeated at home, winning 12 and drawing four of the remaining 16 fixtures at the Signal Iduna Park after the opening day loss to Leverkusen.