Borussia Dortmund 1-4 RB Leipzig: Key takeaways

Borussia Dortmund continue to over-think and over play the ball when in possession

Fancy, exciting football has been something that has been part of Borussia Dortmund’s brand for a very long time. Under the guidance of Jürgen Klopp in particular, the club developed into one of the most high scoring teams in Europe and entered a period where their modern take on attacking football was formed.

Since then, they have continued to search for players and managers who can continue to carry that torch forward. This focus on attacking play has produced some beautiful sequences where players have shown outrageously skilful moves to create beautiful football for the fans enjoy.

In all these fancy flicks and footwork we also find that Dortmund can be their own greatest enemy, however. Oftentimes, the team forgets about playing the ball in a simple and safe manner in situations where that sort of play is called for.

This is clearly illustrated by Emre Can’s play in the lead up to Leipzig’s first goal. Can was running back towards his own goal, with a Leipzig player in pursuit. He was well aware that Konrad Laimer was behind him because he had seen Axel Witsel tussle with Laimer in the first place. Instead of playing it back to Gregor Kobel, Can decided to try and dribble the ball past Laimer. He lost the ball in a dangerous position and Leipzig were able to work the ball onto the other flank and score the opening goal.

Like many of the goals against Dortmund this season, this one was brought to fruition not on the basis of brilliant play by Leipzig, but due to individual mistakes. One has to give credit to Leipzig for taking the opportunity and running with it. But this opportunity, like many this season could’ve and should’ve been easily avoided.

Emre Can is by no means the only player at fault for over-playing or over complicating relatively simple situations by trying to be over-intricate. Thorgan Hazard did something similar before the second goal. And over the course of the season, Dortmund have been guilty of trying to play the ball out of the box when circumstance dictates that simply clearing the ball from the area would be the most sound decision to make.

This game was no different, with Dortmund’s defense getting caught in dangerous positions simply because the ball was kept in the vicinity of the goal for much longer than it should have been. Until these instances are worked out of their game, it is inevitable that these sort of performances will continue to hamper the club’s progress moving forward.