How can Borussia Dortmund compensate for the injuries to Julien Duranville and Karim Adeyemi?

Option 2: Dortmund shift to strike partnership

The second option for Dortmund and Sahin is to tinker with the system in a way where he seeks to alleviate the loss of attacking threat that they are facing, particularly with Adeyemi being out of action. To do this, they could possibly employ a strike partnership.

In Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier, Dortmund has two players who have excelled when playing in a front two at their previous clubs. Beier, on his part, excelled up front alongside Croatian international Andrej Kramarić, scoring 16 and assisting once while with Hoffenheim last season. Guirassy, as we've discussed as well, had a wonderful partnership with Deniz Undav at Stuttgart that helped propel his club into a Champions League spot last season.

A front two would also offer flexibility in terms of how the rest of the team plays. Şahin could for example start games with a more compact midfield four of Julian Brandt, Pascal Groß, Marcel Sabitzer and Emre Can, with Julian Ryerson and Yan Couto as fullbacks attacking out wide in offensive scenarios, and then switching to having Malen and Gittens out wide by taking Brandt and another midfielder off if the situation called for more offensive power on the pitch.

At least in the offense, even if Şahin looks to maintain the current formation (which may be the safer option considering too much tinkering is half the reason Dortmund has had such mixed results), simply taking the attacking midfielder out in favor of a striker like Beier when substitutions occur would probably be better for the young German international in particular. If he is to now theoretically play a more significant role, it may make sense to play him in a position that not only benefits him but could unlock a new element of play from Guirassy who, as mentioned, also excels in this sort of setup.