Season 6: SM23 (Tactics Page) Episode 14: Dortmund to SM23

Soccerblog 3 Minutes

Welcome back soccermanagerite! I hope yesterday’s episode got you pumped up for this one as we’ll be heading to Germany to check out the tactical set up of the “Yellow Army”: Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund are a team that are well known for their explosive, fast pace style of football who are one of the pioneers for giving young players an opportunity to develop into potential World Class status via granted them regular playing time within one of the most competitive leagues in the world with the addition of seasonal Champions League football. Because of this, we’ve been blessed with the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Mats Hummels, Jadon Sancho, Christian Pulisic, Robert Lewandowski, and Erling Haaland who were all signed at a young age, given the opportunity to play, and went on to better teams as a result. The current player who has followed in the footsteps of these previous ones is of course Mr. Jude Bellingham who is on his way to Madrid in July. There are still some more gems within the current crop of players who will be in the hunt for a big move in the future such as Adeyemi, Malen, Reyna, Schlotterbeck, and the very talented Youssoufa Moukoko



Now, Borussia Dortmund can also be considered in the same ball park as Arsenal (in terms of bottling their league) but they can still be proud of their ability to keep up with the almighty Bayern throughout the entire season, pushing them all the way to the final game of the season as a result.



Let’s take a look at how things went for them throughout the Bundesliga season:

Man, cannot believe they didn’t win the league….



Dortmund’s exciting young squad lined up like this for majority of their matches this season:




AND for the player roles:

Borussia Dortmund have always been a team that looks to impose themself on their opposition without any fear, so this more attacking set up is within their ballpark. It all starts with the back 5 (including Kobel) looking to impose themselves on the opposition from minute 1. There’s a good balance between both Sule and Schlotterbeck, while Wolf and Guerreiro tend to bomb forward providing the width for the team (which the odd occasion that Guerreiro would drift into midfield like an ‘Inverted Fullback’. Emre Can held things down within the Midifield, while Starboy Jude Bellingham got up and down the pitch. The front 4 were all about combination play and rotations in order to cause confusion and havoc against their opposition. Youssoufa Moukoko tended to start on the shoulder of the D(C)’s but could also drift out-wide to open up space for the likes of Adeyemi and Brandt to run into while Reus was the main Playmaker within this team who was responsibility for playing those killer passes into dangerous areas.



Alrighty, now that we’ve got the starting X1 in play, let’s see how Borussia Dortmund’s tactical set up would’ve been within SM23:


STRATEGY

Although Dortmund tend to start play from the back, they are more concerned about implementing their high intensity game on their opponent. And one of the best ways for them to do this is by applying a ‘high press’ strategy within their game



INSTRUCTIONS

Image of Dortmund’s Instructions



GENERAL

Borussia Dortmnund tended to not be too wide or narrow allowing their players to keep a reasonable distance between each other. Ofcourse they always aimed to play on the front football by playing fast, electrifying football through allowing thier attack minded players the freedom to express themselves



ATTACK

When in the attacking third, Dortmund don’t tend to waste a lot of time on the ball as they aim to make swift combinations in order to get into scoring opportunities swiftly. They also like to operate within the central regions once they get into the attacking third



DEFENDING

Back in 2009, Borussia Dortmund were one of the pioneers for revitalizing ‘gergen pressing’and they’ve kept that defensive philosophy ever since with their intention of pressing from the front in order to win the ball high up the pitch



Dortmund will be gutted after losing out to Bayern yet again, and with Bellingham heading out the door, it might be another league season next year without that coveted Bundesliga title. But, they still have a lot to look forward to as they possess some of the best crop of young players within the game and if this season is anything to account for, the collective of the squad (with some additional players from that Bellingham income) could see them challenging Bayern all the way to the last kick of the season in 23/24.



Thank you as always for reading soccermanagerite. We’re heading to Spain tomorrow to checkout one of my favorite teams from the capital. ADIOS!







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