Decline of Borussia Dortmund

*This article was posted on the 31st of November and could not get uploaded earlier due to some technical difficulties*

On 25th May 2013, the top two clubs in Europe(and arguably the world) met and fought for the biggest prize of all, the UEFA Champions League. One of those two teams was Borussia Dortmund, having beaten the likes of Real Madrid on their route to the final. Though they came second to rivals Bayern that night, they were the heartbeat of a new love story.

Nobody imagined that a year later, they will be officially the worst team in Bundesliga. After Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt, Dortmund are rock bottom of the league, having amassed only 11 points from 13 games. Even their famous fans, who have stuck by the team throughout this nightmarish season, have begun to boo their players.

The downfall is so sudden and unexpected that even coach Jurgen Klopp has seemed helpless in the past weeks, watching his team stumble for one catastrophe to another.

Follow the slides to see our assessment of the current predicament.

It’s easier to blame a coach for all the problems, but this is no ordinary coach we are talking about. This is Jurgen Klopp. He is the man responsible for taking BVB out of relagation and has even managed to win two back-to-back Bundesliga titles. He nurtured some wonderful players in the process like Marco Reus, World-cup winning goal-scorer Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski. When you sell two of the best players you have to your biggest rivals, there is little that a coach can do.

Yet, he has taken full responsibility of the current situation of the team and has insisted this weekend that he wouldn’t resign.

While his team has been brilliant in Champion’s League, he has struggled to motivate his players and get the best out of them in the league.

He is still linked with jobs in the English Premier League as well as with the German national team, but the longer the current crisis goes on, the more one asks: how much does anyone else really want him?

The reason why the fans took this long to lose patience is because there has been no lack of effort from the players. Statistically, Dortmund have run more kilometres than any other team in the league.

Key players like Reus and Gundogan have been injured most of the season. The new signings have understandably found it tough to settle so early on, with Ciro Immobile scoring only 6 goals since joining.

The main problem this season has been it’s defence and they have lost quite a few points due to silly errors, an area that Klopp needs to sort out pretty soon.

Though bottom of the league, Dortmund hasn’t lost a single match with a margin of more than 2 goals!

They have had the bulk of the chances in most of the matches and a lots of losses could have potentially returned better results. The conversion rate has been poor and Immobile and Aubameyang have not been up to scratch as replacements for the injured Reus and the transferred Lewandowski.

It’s safe to say that the team has been a little unlucky, and may be with a some rub of the green, they can turn season around.

Now that their relegation battle has officially begun with club’s sporting director Michael Zorc acknowledging “We are right in the relegation battle”, it would be a shame if BVB slips into the second tier of German football.

After displaying a wonderful structure on how to be successful without spending millions in the transfer market, it will be a huge hit on the morale of the clubs who aspire to function in the same way.

Chief executive Watzke told shareholders last week that one season out of the Champions League would be no problem for Dortmund financially; relegation, on the other hand, would be disastrous, both for the sporting and the financial sides of things.

This team needs to fight, and while Klopp will stay with his his team, he needs to act, and act quickly.