Opinion: Borussia Dortmund’s decision to part ways with Marco Rose is a risky move

Borussia Dortmund suddenly parted ways with Marco Rose this past week, raising many questions regarding this summer and the upcoming season.

In a shocking move this past Friday, Borussia Dortmund and Marco Rose ended their collaboration after a season that was marred with poor results, sub par performances, and more injuries than most clubs see over the course of several years. The club and former coach have decided not to go into great detail in terms of describing the reasoning behind their separation, but speculation points towards the fact that Dortmund’s higher ups no longer felt the same level of confidence they had so adamantly pushed over the course of the last months.

Marco Rose’s separation with Dortmund comes at a time of great upheaval, where many players are set to leave or join the club before the next season. The signings that have already been announced (Adeyemi, Süle, Schlotterbeck) all seemed to have been made in accordance with a plan that had been formed in tandem with the now former head coach.

In addition to this, the players that have signed noted having confidence in the plan that was presented, and the assumption, at least from the information available via interviews, was that these plans had Marco Rose at the helm to implement them. Newcomer Nico Schlotterbeck commented on these developments, stating that he was surprised at the move:

"“It came as a surprise to me, too. But I was convinced of the Borussia Dortmund vision, that’s why I made this move. Now there has been a change of coach, you have to live with that in football. I, of course, had good talks with Marco. I don’t know who will take over yet, but Dortmund will find a good solution.“"

It was very clear that talks with Marco Rose had indeed been part of what convinced players like Schlotterbeck, Süle and Adeyemi to join the club in the first place. In addition, many of the club’s current players had been staunch supporters of Rose throughout his time with the club, making one wonder whether these opinions were taken into account when the final decision to dismiss Rose was made.

The question then remains: just what is Dortmund’s plan? As of right now, the answer doesn’t seem clear. The move to dismiss Rose came across as a very haphazard and sudden decision that, when looking at the backing the club put behind him throughout the season, almost completely invalidates all the emphasis the club put on convincing onlookers that they indeed trusted Rose with the club’s future moving forward. It also doesn’t set a healthy precedent considering all the adversity Rose faced this season in terms of personnel and injuries.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Rose himself was a perfect coach to begin with. Decisions related to the team’s tactical setup and the amount of minutes given to the club’s youth products were both disappointing. There were several instances where Rose chose to bring on either Reinier or Marin Pongračić ahead of players like Youssoufa Moukoko. If the former two had proven that they could play a productive role for the club, then perhaps these decisions would have made sense, but neither had any substantial impact to warrant their place in Dortmund’s player hierarchy.

That being said, Rose’s dismissal is still questionable in terms of what it means for the club’s stability. Rose’s hands were constantly tied due to the injury problems that dictated Dortmund’s season. And him leaving now means Dortmund’s planned rebuild becomes a lot more complicated than it needed to be.

The constant merry go round that Borussia Dortmund have become known for is not conducive to club stability, nor does it show any level of decisiveness from the club’s upper echelon.

From what has been reported so far, Borussia Dortmund will look to appoint Edin Terzić as Rose’s successor, which is a gamble in itself, because there is no guarantee that he will be able to reproduce the same level of results that saw Dortmund win the DFB-Pokal in 2021.

Terzić’s stint was far too short to judge his ability to lead the club long term. And after the club’s expensive gamble on Rose, both the BVB bosses and Terzić will be under huge scrutiny from the offset.

What Terzić did display during his time as interim head coach was promising however. His ability to motivate the team and his overall attachment to the club emotionally are substantial qualities. During his time as head coach, he also seemed to develop a good relationship with the players which is important when it comes to how the team itself performs.

While I can’t say I agree with Rose’s dismissal from the standpoint that the club had spent the entire year trying to convince others and, to a degree themselves that he is the right man for the job, should Terzić be appointed, he deserves to be properly backed. This not only because of his connection with the club, but also because the club needs to build a sense of stability, identity and direction.

Whether it would have been Rose at the help in August, or now Terzić as suspected, the bosses must give whoever is in charge the tools they need for success and their undivided support so that the club can finally move forward and have a recognizable personality and play style on the pitch that is conducive to overall sporting success.