Football-without Schlotterbeck: BVB defensive against Barça on the test bench

Nico Schlotterbeck has had a journey between the extremes over the past few days. The defender of Borussia Dortmund was emotionally adjusted to a few phenomenal football days, on a quarter-final game in the Champions League at FC Barcelona (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), a duel in Munich at Bayern on Saturday in the Bundesliga and the second leg against the Catalan major club in the local Westphalian stadium next week. Now, however, he has to announce a complete withdrawal from all stages because a meniscus in the left knee was torn in training on Sunday. Schlotterbeck announces that he will temporarily disappear “from the public and social media” and writes on Instagram: “Because I need it for my head.”

At the final tournament with the national team in the Nations League in June, Schlotterbeck will be missing as well as at the club World Cup with the Dortmunders and in the further course of the Bundesliga season. That meets BVB “very hard,” says sports director Sebastian Kehl. Not only because the most stable, most reliable and probably also the strongest player in the team has been lost. But also because the failure damages the latest developments that many observers consider as a kind of breakthrough.

Trainer Niko Kovac decided in March during the game at RB Leipzig for a promising system change. Because Marcel Sabitzer had to be replaced at the time and probably because he has been dealing with this thought for a long time. In any case, he converted his team, which has been playing with a chain of three with a chain of three since that 33rd minute of the game lost 2-0 and has taken amazing development steps in this basic order. The team now works considerably better, as the recent games against Mainz and Freiburg underlike. The 3-4-1-2 system works.

Kovac says: »The transitions between the triple and four chains are fluid. We want to be variable so that we are difficult to assess for the opponents. ”There is only one problem: three central defenders are required for a defense chain, and the lack of this type of player was already visible before the Schlotterbeck injury.

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Niklas Süle is struck, Ramy Bensebaini had to be replaced with a blessing in Freiburg this Saturday, whereupon the midfielder Salih Özcan moved into the defense. Actually, only Emre Can and Waldemar Anton are set for the defense duelle in Barcelona with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha or Lamine Yamal. Kovac is faced with the question of whether he should abolish his best coaching idea so far, which also includes a well -functioning double -top tip.

In his first days after his arrival at BVB, the coach wanted to know in one -on -one discussions from all players at the end of January who feels most comfortable in which position, in which rooms and with which tasks. Even then, it is said to have indicated that the 4-2-3-1 system established in Dortmund for years could be questioned. Now it can be seen that the full -back Daniel Svensson and Julian Ryerson can better control the rooms on their wings when they become so -called rail players and have three central defenders in their back.

In addition, the new system fits perfectly with Maximilian Beier and Karim Adeyemi, which recently formed a classic double tip and were also much more harmonious into the overall construct. “Maxi and I also played this with our old clubs, so we quickly adapted it,” says Adeyemi, who suddenly no longer run away from the back because he thought again that nothing would happen.

The whole construct seems stabilized, even if caution is required with assessments of Borussia Dortmund, which should last longer than until the next game. But after major initial problems, football progress is undoubtedly recognizable. And in the 4-1 win against Freiburg, the trend even continued without Schlotterbeck. The left foot was missing due to a yellow lock, so they have practiced their new system without the defender, who was actually more shaped than ever since he came to Dortmund in 2022. Even national coach Julian Nagelsmann said: »Nico’s failure hurts extremely. He is extremely valuable both in the club and for us in the national team – on and off the square. «