Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Club Brugge: Three takeaways from BVB’s Champions League opener

It’s a new season with new players, a new coach, and a new look for Borussia Dortmund. What’s more is a new UEFA Champions League format. This was BVB's first of eight league stage matches, which sees the club in a combined table with all 36 teams in this competition. Nuri Sahin made his managerial debut in the Champions League, and he should be pleased with a 3-0 win on the road, but the match was anything but straightforward. 

Club Brugge played a strong defence for much of the game, absorbing Dortmund’s pressure and counter-attacking in near lethal fashion. BVB scrambled in defence at times, and goalkeeper Gregor Kobel bailed out the team with five saves, but maintaining the clean sheet is still impressive. Dortmund registered just one more shot on target than their opponents. We should be satisfied by earning three points in this match, but there is much to improve on. Here are my biggest takeaways:

Too many false-nines causes confusion

This game gave me flashbacks to Bundesliga matchday one, and not just because Jamie Gittens scored a brace from the bench to win the game. In both the Frankfurt match, and this one, Sahin opted not to start with a traditional striker. Instead, Karim Adeyemi, Donyell Malen, Julian Brandt, and Marcel Sabitzer all rotated in their attacking positions, drifting into the number nine roll as play progressed. I see what Sahin is going for here, but these players seem too focused fitting the system, that their individual talent doesn’t have the opportunity to shine. None of these players is fully comfortable playing in that number nine position.

Adeyemi is strongest on the wing, while Brandt and Sabitzer are more effective in build-up. Serhou Guirassy’s introduction fixed this problem by allowing Dortmund’s midfield to remain fluid while still having a target-man in the box. Players like Brandt, Adeyemi, and Sabitzer will naturally find space and goals by playing Sahin’s system through the midfield, but when they’re focused on drifting into the middle of the box, they take shots they’re not comfortable with from positions they’re not used to. This was most evident in the pair of howlers that Brandt sent into the stands. Those were difficult balls to play, however, and Brandt shines when he can be more technical. A striker like Guirassy on the other hand, is much more accustomed to redirecting a pass into a shot without additional touches on the ball. 

I think this is a temporary problem. Against Frankfurt, it was after Maxi Beier’s introduction as a striker, that allowed Dortmund’s midfielders to drop into more comfortable positions while maintaining Sahin’s fluid rotation. Guirassy starting against Heidenheim meant Dortmund could play a more effective press and attack. As Guirassy gains more fitness and Beier integrates into the squad, we should reliably have two strikers to fill this role. With a striker on the pitch, Sahin’s system seems more effective.