Dortmund have five senior central midfielders and room for two of them. Somebody is going to spend a lot of autumn watching from the bench.
Joey Veerman signed his contract at Brackel on Monday with his family watching. Dortmund made it official a day later and gave him the number 25 shirt.
BVB Buzz have already run through who stands to gain from his arrival. The losers are the more interesting half of it.
Two slots, five bodies
Kovac has leaned on two central midfielders in his 3-4-2-1 all summer and shown no appetite whatsoever for squeezing in a third. Felix Nmecha is nailed on after signing to 2030. Veerman didn't cost €22m just to watch him play from the bench.
Which leaves Jobe Bellingham, Marcel Sabitzer and Carney Chukwuemeka fighting over whatever minutes are left in a season in which Dortmund intend to run deep into Europe.
Ricken made the reasoning public when the deal went through. Out went Pascal Gross and Salih Özcan earlier this year, while Emre Can is being readied to play at centre-back once he rejoins the group.
BVB Buzz discussed the confidence that Veerman will make a positive impact in Ricken's verdict on the deal. Where that leaves Marcel Sabitzer is the obvious point that fans are raising.
Sabitzer could still go before the 1st September deadline, according to Ruhr Nachrichten. He looks the obvious candidate at 32 and in the last year of his deal.
The obvious answer is the wrong one
The terraces and I part company here. Selling Sabitzer solves nothing.
The head coach trusts him. The Austrian covers three positions and costs nothing extra to keep for another ten months. A squad chasing a title challenge and a long European run will be crying out for that sort of body by October, because injuries always come.
The man in actual trouble is Chukwuemeka. He sat out the Roma draw with muscular problems after Kovac decided to avoid risking aggravating them. A knock in Tokyo had already interrupted his pre-season.
What he needs now is a season of football rather than a season of rehabilitation. Fifth in a five-man queue won't offer him that.
Look at what he's up against. FotMob has Veerman down as a central midfielder valued at €20.3m. Ole Book praised the Dutchman's creativity and vision when the deal went through, while Ruhr Nachrichten count nearly two hundred competitive games for PSV.
So who moves? Sabitzer's agent will no doubt be taking calls because Bologna has already been mentioned in the Italian press, and there are bound to be others. Could the Premier League be a potential destination for the Austrian?
But, more importantly, if BVB want this squad to make sense by the time Hamburger SV visit later this month, the paperwork they should be drawing up is a loan with Chukwuemeka's name on it.
Verdict: Veerman starts. Kovac is now one senior midfielder heavier than any coach wants to be in September.
Likelihood: Sabitzer remains the likeliest to leave before the deadline, even though Chukwuemeka is the one whose season depends on getting out.
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