Takeaways from Borussia Dortmund’s 2-0 defeat to Augsburg

Lucien Favre’s favouritism needs to end

While the players definitely deserve blame for the shambolic display, so does Lucien Favre for his constant favouritism and poor decision making during the game. Starting the game with Gio Reyna was an understandable decision. But not taking him off at half time after what was a poor performance from the young American was a bad call from him.

Yes, Reyna is only 17, and so he will have bad days at the office. But it is Favre’s job to ensure that he manages his players the right way. He didn’t do anything to suggest that he could be the difference maker, and it was clear that he was struggling to cope with Augsburg’s physicality. The fact that Favre took Guerreiro and Bellingham off, who actually had decent games, made it worse. Bellingham especially should have never been taken off.

All of his substitutions reeked of desperation and hope. It never looked like he had an answer on how his team could break down Augsburg’s defence. The arrival of Marco Reus and Julian Brandt also came too late with the team already two goals down. Had they been brought on at half time, maybe they’d have been able to rally the team to a comeback.