Chance missed. With a win against FC Sevilla on Tuesday evening, Borussia Dortmund could have already celebrated a place in the last 16 of the Champions League. Mats Hummels is now calling for his team to mature after the 1:1 draw.
“It has to get out of some people’s heads that successful football is always sexy and heel, toe, one, two, three on five metres,” the centre-back told “Amazon prime”. Instead of “sometimes doing the special thing”, it would be better to try to “always do the right thing”; even in situations where things get restless on the pitch, Hummels further demanded.
What the defender explicitly criticised about the game against Sevilla? “Everything except the 25th to the 45th minute. We only started to press after the 0:1, thus causing Sevilla to lose the ball easily and then we were dominant.” After the break, however, that was already over. “We had 20 easy ball losses completely unnecessarily, always played into tight spaces instead of letting them run,” Hummels complained. Against a Sevilla that was “insecure and happy with the 1:1”.
Hummels’ plea for Bellingham
I also “try to communicate my criticism on the pitch”, as seen in the game against the Andalusians, the 33-year-old continued. But that is “difficult when you have the feeling that there are perhaps not so many more on the pitch who are always trying to push”. A leadership problem in the still young squad?
Hummels was obviously not referring to a young player: Jude Bellingham, who had commented on many a failed pass attempt by his colleagues with his own gestures. “Jude always wants to win, in every training session and game. He invests extremely much. It’s also clear that he has to channel certain energies a bit at that age, which I would also like to have. But he has played every minute this year and tried to win every minute and fight for the team. He is allowed to grumble and make mistakes,” said Hummels, clearly putting himself in front of Dortmund’s young star.
“I’d rather have him … “
As a teenager, Bellingham’s fourth goal in his fourth Champions League game of 2022/23 puts him in an illustrious and very small league. Only two players under the age of 20 have managed this in the top flight before him: his ex-teammate Erling Haaland, who – still wearing a Salzburg shirt in 2019 – scored on five consecutive matchdays. And Kylian Mbappé, who had also scored in four consecutive games for AS Monaco in 2017 – including three times in two quarter-final matches against Dortmund.
No wonder, then, that Hummels singles out Bellingham and his mentality: “He’s not perfect yet, logically, that would also be frightening, but he’s getting better and better and has already come a long way. I’d rather have him who grumbles five times and gives 90 minutes of gas than someone who is silent for 90 minutes and gives less gas. “
