Can Borussia Dortmund save the season after all?
In January 2024, Nuri Şahin returned to Borussia Dortmund as an assistant coach, and only half a year later, he received the chance to become the new head coach of his boyhood club. Nearly everyone around the club believed in the idea of promoting Şahin and changing their play style from now on. As Terzic’s assistant, it was already Şahin who helped Dortmund to play better football and to reach the Champions League final.
Around seven months and only 27 matches later, this project, as well as the journey, has already come to a very sad and unpleasant end. Four lost matches in a row and some really disappointing performances led to the early dismissal of the coach, whom everyone had had high hopes for in the beginning.
Kovac has been hired as the new coach
After three unexpectedly good performances and results with caretaker manager Mike Tullberg, the club announced the signing of former Bayern Munich coach Niko Kovac. Especially fans have had a couple of concerns about the new coach and were already questioning whether he will be the right one in the mid-term. Albeit all these doubts, the same people also wanted to give Kovac a fair chance since he isn’t the person in charge of the club. The critics are more with decision makers like Hans-Joachim Watzke, Lars Ricken, and Sebastian Kehl.
Kovac's first appearances gave fans mixed feelings right away. His first home match was lost despite having played a fairly good match. His third match and first Bundesliga match away with Dortmund was an embarrassing loss in Bochum. It was clear that Kovac would have to change his speech with the team and address issues even more directly.
This became a turning point for Borussia Dortmund and Niko Kovac. Of course, they still missed a couple of extremely good goal chances, like when they unluckily lost their match in Leipzig some weeks later, but at least they were fighting, motivating each other, and having those chances. Although the loss has been disappointing, it was the beginning of a positive trend.
New system leads to positive results
The last international break couldn’t have been any better from a time perspective. For Borussia Dortmund and Kovac it meant two weeks of training and implementing a new system for the final sprint of the season. From now on, they started to play with a back three, and this new system turned out to suit the squad and their strengths perfectly. Since then, they have been unbeaten in the Bundesliga, and that’s the reason why the Champions League spots are still only four points away.
Dortmund's opponents in the last four match days of this season will be Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, and Kiel. Based on the positions of those teams, this is the second easiest match schedule of all teams in the upper half of the table after Werder Bremen. This could have a major impact on the end positions as well.
The confidence is back in Dortmund
At the moment, Dortmund are only two points behind the Conference League spot, three points behind the Europa League, and four points behind RB Leipzig and the Champions League qualification. In the end, this means that everything is still possible, even the Champions League spot, since Leipzig has to face Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, Bremen, and Stuttgart in the last matches.
Some experts and bookmakers already believe in Dortmund reaching position four and with that the qualification for the Champions League. At least the qualification for the Europa League would be important for the club since a season without international matches or only playing in the Conference League would hit the club hard from a financial perspective.
For now, there are at least high hopes for another year in the Champions League, and with the last strong performances in mind, the confidence is back in Dortmund. Fans and observers should already look forward to some tight and exciting matches and match days.
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