On the 99th day of his tenure as coach of Borussia Dortmund, Marco Rose suffered his highest defeat to date: However, he was able to cope with the 0:3 in the test against Paderborn. The personnel situation, on the other hand, continues to cause concern. The injuries to Youssoufa Moukoko and Raphael Guerreiro are a particular cause for concern.
In politics it has been customary for decades and it has also been fashionable for football coaches for some time to take stock after 100 days in office. For Marco Rose, who started at BVB at the beginning of July, the time has come on Friday – and the day before could well have gone better. First, the 45-year-old was gradually informed that Youssoufa Moukoko (Germany U21), Thorgan Hazard (Belgium) and Raphael Guerreiro had all left their national teams and returned to Dortmund with injuries. Then his team, which was short-staffed and therefore filled up with U-19 and U-23 players, also lost a test match against Paderborn with 0:3.
“Just now we lost 0:3 – of course that doesn’t make you satisfied,” said Rose when asked about his 100-day record at BVB’s training ground after the match. Then he expanded his view to the period from July onwards – and his expression brightened: “I think that we have managed very decently up to this point under the given circumstances, with the expectations placed on us and all that has been piled on us,” he formulated and then added how he sees things continuing: “Our ambition is to get better, to keep at it, to develop things further and to decide the games we couldn’t win for ourselves in the next block. “
Original plan scrapped – Moukoko and Guerreiro missing
Originally, the plan was to finally be able to tackle the upcoming tasks – including two tough ones in the Champions League against Ajax Amsterdam – with a reasonably complete squad. But nothing came of it. Moukoko and Guerreiro have torn muscle fibres and are out for the time being. It is not yet clear exactly for how long. However, neither will be able to play against 1. FSV Mainz 05. “It is,” admitted Rose, “not an easy situation at the moment.”
But there were also positives to discover for the BVB coach on Thursday: Emre Can, who has already been injured frequently this season, was on the pitch for around 60 minutes for the first time this season. Left-back Nico Schulz – who has also been plagued by injury in recent weeks – even received extra praise from his coach (“He makes an excellent impression”) for his performance against Paderborn. “There are players falling away, but there are also some coming in,” Rose said, “that’s our fist asset we have at the moment.”
Hope in Hazard, Kobel and Meunier
After all, there was a warning for Hazard, who also returned early from the Belgian national team. The offensive player’s ankle problems are not serious and he should be able to return to training after the weekend off. The same applies to Gregor Kobel and Thomas Meunier. The duo is expected to gradually return to team training. Until the match against Mainz, Mats Hummels and Jude Bellingham, who were spared on Thursday and both worked individually, will also be back. Rose is also optimistic about Erling Haaland. “At the moment, things are moving forward,” the BVB coach said of Borussia’s recently missing top striker, who took to Instagram on Thursday to show himself jogging in Marbella, where he is currently allowed to recover.
