Borussia Dortmund 1-5 Stuttgart: Talking points from the game which ended the Lucien Favre era

Borussia Dortmund dropped to fifth place this weekend after a stunning 5-1 defeat at home to newly promoted side VFB Stuttgart. The game has sent reverberations around the club, and looks to be a turning point for the Black and Yellows’ season.

A variety of words have been spoken, written and read this weekend after Stuttgart’s 5-1 demolition of Borussia Dortmund this past match day, but the one word that really does this  result justice, in my opinion, is “grim”. The signs have been there for some weeks now that something has not been clicking for Die Schwarzgelben.

The same team that started the season with one of their best defensive records in years is now letting in cheap, unnecessary goals again, an ode to years past where we may have thought the worst of that inefficiency at the back was indeed behind us. The midfield has looked flat at times, lacking the dynamism to be inventive and screen attacks before they reached the defence in the first place, and our attack has looked toothless, with some of our most talented players seemingly losing their creativity overnight.

The synergy that propelled our attacking prowess to withering heights has seemingly evaporated, with the team over-relying on individual brilliance rather than playing as a single unit. The last month has hauntingly resembled the 14-15 season, where a lack of ideas up front and shoddy defending saw Dortmund fall into a relegation battle, and while the situation isn’t that bad by any means, the stagnant performances the team has put forth have been unnerving, to say the least.

In the game against Stuttgart, all of Dortmund’s problems were on full display. The team has shown a propensity to collapse and struggle to come back from a deficit. Over the course of the last couple years under Lucien Favre, the team has developed a reputation as a “second half team”, with the first half often being used as a wake up call, on many occasions after the opponent has already scored.

It was more of the same against Stuttgart, who drew a penalty in the first half after looking the more threatening side straight out of the gates. Dortmund looked unsettled for the majority of the game, something that one could say is ultimately unacceptable on home turf for a team of their talent and calibre. The performance they put in was a glaring sign that both change and intense reflection are necessary in the coming weeks to ensure they can still make this a successful season. Lets take a closer look at the key talking points and overall reverberations around the club that this game has become the catalyst for.