Three things we learned from Borussia Dortmund’s pre-season games

Getting that final pass right

Far too often, we heard Lucien Favre say last season that the final pass from his players wasn’t good enough. That was the story of pre-season as well, even though Borussia Dortmund scored an impressive 27 goals. We saw too many sideways passes, and not enough forward, direct play as Borussia Dortmund struggled to break their opponents down, especially in the last four games. The build-up play was often slow, laboured and passive.

Now, obviously performances and results don’t really matter in pre-season games. So this isn’t something that should be too concerning for those in charge. But if Dortmund are to challenge for the top honours this season, they need to be more incisive and direct in tight games where the opposition is happy to sit back and defend.

Borussia Dortmund have enough quality players in their ranks who are capable of playing that game changing pass. So hopefully, they will hit their form in time for the start of the new season.

One thing that was encouraging from pre-season was that Borussia Dortmund showed more intent to press higher up the pitch as a team. Whether that continues over the course of the season remains to be seen. But it is certainly a good sign, as that lack of pressing really hurt Dortmund last season.