Trio set to remain with the Borussia Dortmund first team for the time being

Borussia Dortmund youth team players Antonios Papadopoulos, Lennard Maloney and Göktan Gürpüz are set to remain with the first-team for the time being. 

This is being reported by Ruhr Nachrichten, who add that Borussia Dortmund head coach Marco Rose wants to watch Göktan Gürpüz more closely in the coming weeks after the young midfielder impressed during pre-season. BVB II centre-backs Antonios Papadopoulos and Lennard Maloney will also stay with the first-team for now due to the many injuries in defence.

With Mats Hummels, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Soumaila Coulibaly and Nnamdi Collins all currently injured, Manuel Akanji is Borussia Dortmund’s only fit senior centre-back. And he too has only just returned to training following his post Euro 2020 break. Emre Can could partner Akanji in defence for the first few games of the season, but he is also dealing with a calf problem at the moment.

That could present an opportunity for Antonios Papadopoulos and Lennard Maloney. The duo featured in all four of Borussia Dortmund’s pre-season games. And Papadopoulos even earned praise from Marco Rose for his no-nonsense defending and tackling.

Papadopoulos and Maloney are both part of the Borussia Dortmund U-23s team, who play in the 3. Liga. So it is likely that they will return to the U-23s once all the first team centre-backs are fit.

It will also be interesting to see what the Black and Yellows’ plans are with Gürpüz. The 18 year old midfielder has been training with the first-team since the start of pre-season. And he also received praise from BVB captain Marco Reus recently.