Edin Terzic and his role in Borussia Dortmund’s plot to win the Bundesliga title

“We started pretty well in the opening stages of the game, but failed to push on after we conceded the goal. We had big problems with their pressing. We couldn’t break through it, we became more uncertain with every pass, and deserved to be behind at the break.”

Edin Terzic had very little to hang his hat on following the previous meeting with RB Leipzig. In what was arguably their most sluggish outing of the season, Borussia Dortmund looked completely inept and were swept away by a club whose new head coach, Marco Rose, had hardly had a chance to set up his new office after being hired just 3 days prior.

Perhaps even more baffling was the collective concession that the battle of intensity had so clearly been in Leipzig’s favor amongst the Borussia Dortmund players in the game’s aftermath. If there’s anything that players within that dressing room would have known about Rose, it would have been that his teams will always press high against any and all opposition.

“It was a bad game from us – almost nothing worked for us. We played it into Leipzig’s hands completely. It was wild. We lost the ball a lot.” Julian Brandt echoed the harsh reality that was bluntly expounded via his head coach in his post-game interview. A shot to the internal confidence at the club was delivered at the hands of its former employee. Rose would have been justifiably thrilled to see his new squad overwhelm the one he was deemed ill-equipped to manage.

Though it was early on in the domestic campaign, it was around this time that many supporters began to raise questions about Terzic. In particular, his tactical adaptation and preparation for matches of that magnitude. Inconsistency exuded from Die Schwarzgelben, as it so often has.

The narrative has only recently changed in the wake of the club’s record ninth straight victory. An unprecedented run that has garnished plenty of praise from media platforms previously disinterested in the routine Borussia Dortmund storylines. The if-only pleas that supporters and pundits dread to acknowledge. When would BVB finally learn to defend set-pieces? Can they learn to win when they haven’t delivered a first-class performance?