100 days BVB coach Marco Rose has been in office this Friday. Time for a first assessment. What is going well? What needs to be improved? The kicker gives an overview.
Marco Rose had probably imagined the 99th day of his tenure differently: However, a 0:3 test match defeat against Paderborn and two new injuries – Raphael Guerreiro and Youssoufa Moukoko suffered fibre tears in their national teams – would not have pleased the 45-year-old on any other day. “Of course, that doesn’t make us satisfied,” he said. But these events do not change the balance of his first months at Borussia Dortmund.
This is already going well:
In October 2021, Borussia Dortmund’s football is only rudimentarily reminiscent of that which BVB showed a year ago. This is partly due to Rose’s predecessor Edin Terzic, who successfully overturned Lucien Favre’s control and patience-based approach in the first half of 2021 and allowed the team to be more active. But of course it’s also rooted in Rose’s fresh ideas, who places great emphasis on intense tackling and sprinting, high counter-pressing, quick switching and variable attacking play.
The exchange with the team, on whose input Rose places great value, works. Coach and team work hand in hand. This is also noticeable in the fact that BVB can now play several basic orders without any problems or transitions: Starting with Rose’s preferred 4-4-2 with diamond, through a 4-2-3-1, a 4-3-3 to the three-man backline, which has so far only been used in the 0:1 in Mönchengladbach. It is also striking how well some players have developed individually since Rose and his coaching staff have been at BVB: The form curves of Thomas Meunier, Julian Brandt, Marius Wolf and also Nico Schulz are clearly pointing upwards. This also helped to compensate to some extent for the many absences due to injury.
This has to get better:
Too many goals conceded – this has often been a problem for Borussia Dortmund in the past. Rose has not yet got to grips with it, even if the recent trend against Lisbon and Augsburg was positive. In particular, BVB is still too susceptible after standard situations and during switching moments, which is often a matter of focus and concentration. Am I attentive enough on stationary balls? What happens if I or my teammate lose the ball in the next moment? Every player has to answer these questions for himself. Over and over again.
Rose is working on this with the professionals, progress is noticeable – but is often still at the expense of the offensive performance. Finding the right balance here will be one of the main tasks in the coming weeks and months, especially in moments when exceptional striker Erling Haaland – as was the case recently – is unable to play and potential scorer points are lost as a result. The fact that players keep dropping out makes Borussia’s development more difficult. However, after the recent absences of Guerreiro and Moukoko, an end to the misery does not seem to be in sight for the time being.
Conclusion:
Rose has already made BVB a good deal better because developments have been consolidated and new ideas implemented. And because the individual potential of one or the other player is now being utilised to a much greater extent. In the Bundesliga, the 45-year-old and his team are very close to the top, and in the Champions League and the DFB Cup, they have no blemishes so far. That is something to build on. To do so, however, BVB needs lasting stability – and fewer injuries.