Dortmund’s Plan
After a big loss to title challenges Bayern Munich, Dortmund will be looking to bounce back as they travel to Hertha Berlin who is a team, who great potential at pose a challenge. We will have a look at the key moments in the game against Bayern and what they can take from it and talk about a major threat on Hertha’s side.
Raphael Guerreiro
Firstly, Dortmund will need to score goals and for this you need to use Raphael Guerreiro who has been so pivotal in the attack for the yellow and black side. This season he has 4 assists in 6 appearances this season which is rare for a LB but because they play so attacking with the full backs it really pays off. If you look at the first goal they scored against Bayern Munich it was Guerreiro who set up Marco Reus by just using his pace to break through (1) the back line it simply squares it to Reus. If Hertha want to contain him, you cannot leave the open space that the Bayern defenders left him.
Haland
Next is the main man Erling Braut Haland the goal scoring machine , if you look at a lot of his goals this season they are him just running full pace and having the ball played through to him for example his two goals against Freiburg were exactly that.
Lethal in the air
Another goalscoring threat for BVB will be from crossing with 1/3 of their goals coming from the cross so look out for Mats Hummels who is on 3 goals, all from corners this season, so they are lethal in the air.
Defence
Dortmund have only conceded 5 goals this season with 3 coming against Bayern and the other against Augsburg, so how have these happened.
Lets look at the biggest defeat which came to there rivals Bayern Munich , Munich’s first goal came from a piece of fortune when Alaba hit it from a free kick and it deflected in off Thomas Meunier but there second is where there is faults.
The second goal is something that Dortmund have to close down and sort out as Hertha do have threats in the air like Matheus Cunha, firstly you need to close the man crossing the ball E.g. Lucas Hernandez (1) as you can see Meunier doesn’t close him down giving him acres of space to cross the ball into the box. This is where the second fault comes and its from the usually ever reliable Mats Hummels as he just shuts off from the play and allows Lewandowski (2) to run through the middle and head it in past Burki.
Also in Bayern’s last goal no one stops Leroy Sane they allow him to run and get the shot off , even though it was a piece of magic by Sane , Akanji just fails to put a tackle in they need to show more confidence and less naivety.
Adaptability
The one golden arrow that the yellow and black have is that their players can easily switch positions and it does not feel any different. For example, in games against Arminia, Bayern and Schalke, Thomas Delaney regularly switches into a 3 at the back formation with the danish international moving into centre back. Also, Emre Can and Lukasz Piszczek have played at CB when needed which creates so much diversity in your back line. With this it allows the full backs to play extremely attacking and basically play as wingers which has been so pivotal this season and last season.
Matheus Cunha
Finally you need to stop the in-form Brazilian who this season has 4 goals and 2 assists , he was linked to Inter Milan before the start of this season you can see why , with him being nominated for the player of the month already and is a favourite to win it.
The man who joined from RB Leipzig ibn January is still only 21 yet seems like he has started to really pick up his best form and with a great squad around him it will be interesting to see how he plays against Dortmund.