BVB Buzz
Fansided

2021 vs 2022: A deep dive into Borussia Dortmund’s insane bad luck with injuries

By Sean Findlay

Borussia Dortmund's injury struggles have been well documented in recent years (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)
Borussia Dortmund's injury struggles have been well documented in recent years (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 4
Next
Minutes missed by competition
Minutes missed by competition /

The numbers

If you feel like this season is just as injury-riddled for Borussia Dortmund as the last, it’s probably because it is. The 24 players tracked have missed a total 10,890 minutes in all competitions so far this season, compared to 10,980 last season. Scary close!

Year-on-year, the team has had similar injury misfortune in all of the three major competitions. So, it might be too easy to blame last season’s Champions League failure just on bad luck.

It is important to note that Sébastian Haller – who sadly has been forced to deal with a very serious health issue – accounts for 2,070 of those minutes. He is included because he was supposed to be the focal point of Dortmund’s attack and set to replace Erling Haaland. Last season, Gio Reyna topped this list with 1,710 missed minutes (19 matches).

Mahmoud Dahoud and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens who dislocated their shoulders early in the season have missed 1,710 and 1,620 minutes respectively and round out the unlucky top three so far this season.

Bundesliga - 2
Bundesliga - 2 /

Until recently it might’ve felt like the team’s problems shifted from defence to offence. After a couple of disappointing matches, Gregor Kobel has only conceded two fewer goals in this season’s Bundesliga despite having much healthier centre-backs and wing-backs (2,250 compared  to 3,870 minutes missed in 2021) in front of him.

Raphaël Guerreiro, often criticized for his lack of fitness, has missed 450 minutes this season. That’s still a lot, but a great improvement when compared to last season’s 1,080 minutes (12 matches).

One of the reasons for Borussia Dortmund lacking creativity when going forward at times could be the massive amount of time missed by their attacking midfielders and wingers. The eleven players tracked for 2022 have missed 6,030 minutes, including captain Marco Reus missing 990 minutes.