Borussia Dortmund had quite a preseason. They were one of the first major European teams to start preparations and among the last to finish, such was the extent of their summer workload.
Six games, a couple of goals and two foreign trips later, the BVB are days away from officially starting a new season.
Some new players joined the squad along the way, a few more old guards such as Karim Adeyemi left, while a handful of teenage wonderkids from the youth setup looked to integrate too.
With that, we have a completely new and replenished Borussia Dortmund squad for the campaign ahead, making it all the more exciting for the fans to look forward to.
Ahead of their season opener against Bayern Munich in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup, here are the major talking points from BVB's preseason:
1) Young guns ready to step up
Most of the goals Borussia Dortmund scored during the preseason came from young players in their squad. The BVB youth brigade had a chance to make a case for themselves in absence of World Cup stars and many of them stepped up to the plate.
Joane Gadou, Mathis Albert, Samuele Inacio, Enzo Duarte, Filippo Mane, Takato Yamamoto and Konstantinos Karetsas all had their moments in the friendlies and could be set for consistent gametime during the regular season too.
2) BVB remain defensively lackluster
Perhaps the biggest flaw that was exposed throughout the preseason was Dortmund's shortcoming in defense. In six games, they kept just one clean sheet while conceding eight, four against Arsenal and AS Roma combined, a testament to their frailties against top-tier sides especially.
While it's true that Kovac went almost the entire summer without his preferred figureheads in defense, it can't be denied that their defensive backups lack the same cohesion as the first-choice players. This is one area where the manager could have more headaches this season.
3) Dortmund's attack is spoilt for choice
Serhou Guirassy has been doing much of the heavy-lifting in attack since joining in 2024. But going forward, he will have incredible support with Karetsas and Joey Veerman joining, and Fabio Silva also experiencing a mini-resurgence.
The Portuguese struck the winner against FC Tokyo and shined against Arsenal too, while Karetsas had a stormer in both his appearances since transfer. We're yet to see Veerman in action, but his deep-lying playmaking skills is sure to give Guirassy more goalscoring opportunities too.
Add us as a preferred source on Google