What Is Borussia Dortmund's Best Back Line for the Rest of the 2015/16 Season?
Much has been made about the resurgence of Borussia Dortmund under Thomas Tuchel in the first half of the 2015/16 season, and rightfully so. The Black and Yellows were highly impressive throughout the first six months of the 42-year-old's tenure, winning 22 of their 30 matches across all competitions.
Not all was sunshine and roses at Signal Iduna Park, however.
The Ruhr side conceded 33 goals in those 30 games, keeping a clean sheet just nine times—four of which came against Wolfsberger AC, FC Chemnitz and FK Qabala in the most lopsided meetings Dortmund had on their busy schedule.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
Looking solely at the Bundesliga, Dortmund have by far the second-best goal difference at plus-24, trailing only Bayern Munich at plus-38. BVB's impressive goal difference is down to their having the most prolific attack in the division.
Having conceded 23 times on the 17 matchdays in the Bundesliga, they have only the seventh-best defensive record.
It's shortsighted to locate all the defensive problems in Dortmund's back line, seeing as goalkeepers Roman Burki and Roman Weidenfeller haven't exactly been outstanding this season so far and Tuchel's system has some inherent weak spots opposing teams have exploited.
Be that as it may, it's well worth looking at the four positions in the back line as the Black and Yellows prepare for a busy second half of the season, because they will be key in the club's hunt for silverware.
Left-Back
We start off with the easiest position to decipher, as there's not much of a decision for Tuchel to make at left-back: Marcel Schmelzer has been his side's most consistent defender all season long.
His main back-up, South Korea international Park Joo-ho, has been a disappointment after making the move from FSV Mainz late in the summer transfer window, which we highlighted in giving him a grade of two out of 10 earlier in December for his performances so far.
One could argue Schmelzer has been the unsung hero of Dortmund's season to this point. The 27-year-old is used to being overlooked. He acknowledged as much in an interview with Bundesliga.de in September (link in German), saying that he feels like players who "just" do their jobs don't get the recognition they deserve compared to flashier ones.
Dortmund's left-back position, which he's taken up relatively unrivalled for more than seven years now, has often been identified as one the club needs to improve at, and many onlookers will have thought his standing would diminish under Tuchel, as former head coach Jurgen Klopp seemed to be the left-back's biggest—if not only—advocate.
At the halfway point of the first season under Klopp's successor, however, that line of thinking has proved to be dead wrong: Schmelzer is still an undisputed regular for the Black and Yellows, having appeared in 27 games.
It's not a stretch to say he's playing his best season yet for Dortmund. In terms of his defence, Schmelzer's should be the first name Tuchel writes on his teamsheet. Park will get the odd game whenever Tuchel feels like the 27-year-old, one of the undisputed leaders on the team, needs a break.
Centre-Back
Central defence should be the showpiece of Dortmund's defence, but for the last year-and-a-half or so, it has been the opposite: the weakest link.
It boggles the mind that a position filled with a genuine superstar in Mats Hummels, two very capable defenders in Sokratis Papastathopoulos and one of Europe's most highly touted talents in Matthias Ginter has performed so poorly over the course of this successful first half of the season.
Ginter has moved to right-back and looks like an emergency option at centre-half at best, Neven Subotic is likely to leave the club at some point in the near future—we encouraged him to do so—and the regular pairing of Sokratis and Hummels has been so disappointing it didn't last the entire Hinrunde.
Curiously enough, the best centre-back of Dortmund's season so far didn't play in the heart of defence until October. Converted defensive midfielder Sven Bender has been immense one position deeper on the pitch.
The 26-year-old started only eight of his side's 30 matches at centre-back, and only four in the Bundesliga, so the sample size isn't great, but he's looked so natural in the back line that it feels like Tuchel should continue to play him there.
It's likely that he and Sokratis will fight for one spot, as club captain Hummels will not be dropped to the bench permanently. The 27-year-old went through a veritable rough patch during the first half of the season, which prompted us to call for his benching in November.
A noticeable uptick in performance towards the end of the year, however, indicated a return to form for Hummels. It's probably not a coincidence that his best performances in months came when he was paired with Bender—and not Sokratis.
The familiarity between him and the Greece international should speak for itself, but the results were very much up and down, which opened the window of opportunity for Bender in the first place.
Too often it seemed like the understanding of Sokratis and Hummels was lacking, as both interpreted their roles somewhat loosely. Both the 27-year-old and the captain try to play on the front foot, going for interceptions in advanced positions, which has led to Dortmund's defensive third being exposed time and time again.
Unless Tuchel can improve the synergy between his preferred pairing from the start of the season in the winter training camp, Bender and Hummels should get the opportunity to build on theirs.
Right-Back
Even more surprising than Bender's emergence in central defence has been Ginter's at right-back. The 21-year-old came out nowhere and ended up starting in 18 competitive matches at his newfound position, earning him a spot on Sam Tighe's list of 100 players to watch in 2016.
With three goals and 10 assists, according to Transfermarkt (link in German), he's indeed been "incredibly productive," as Tighe noted.
It has to be said, however, that his impressive scoring contribution dried up considerably towards the end of the calendar year. Since the start of October, he's only scored once and assisted two goals. Since his goal and one of the assists came in the win over local rivals FC Schalke in November's Revierderby, however, Dortmund fans didn't mind all that much.
Ginter's place in Tuchel's starting XI isn't set in stone by any means, though. Lukasz Piszczek seemed to get better as the season went on and recaptured the position he's held for the last five years, starting five of Dortmund's last six games of 2015.
Despite a noticeable decline from his glory days, the 30-year-old still offers a better package than Ginter at right-back—unsurprisingly so, considering how little the latter has played on the outside.
In 2016, Dortmund's regular right-back might end up being someone other than Ginter and Piszczek, however: Erik Durm looks set to return to full fitness and should be available after the winter break.
Some of the Black and Yellows' defensive problems stem from the full-backs' high positioning on the pitch, and Durm, unlike Ginter, has the speed to track back if Dortmund lose the ball in the build-up or teams try to counter-attack.
There doesn't seem to be a perfect solution at right-back, as all three options have flaws. Tuchel may well opt to rotate at that spot and play the hot hand while also considering the opposition his side face in any given game.
Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
