Borussia Dortmund enjoyed a dominating win against Nuremberg in the Bundesliga and while the opposition wasn’t very strong, there were some very positive things to take away from the 7-0 victory.
Borussia Dortmund put in an incredible showing at the Signal Iduna Park against Nuremberg in an exhilarating 7-0 performance that was incredible on multiple fronts. The sheer audacity of the coach to rotate so heavily should give him the props he deserves. A whole host of youngsters found minutes on the pitch while several individual performances were on point.
There was nothing more one could have hoped from this game as the coach did everything perfectly. From his setup to the tactical approach, Favre made sure this time around, that he got his XI right. While the line-up is fantastic in hindsight, it was a risky move and his courage to make that decision is commendable.
With that said, here are three takeaways from an exciting victory.
Achraf Hakimi is the perfect right-back for Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund have struggled with their full-backs in recent years since the sharp decline of Lukas Piszczek. While the Polish defender is still very good when in form, he struggles to provide the same dynamism as in his prime and that’s perfectly fine. What’s been difficult, however, is finding a suitable replacement for him with the club failing to integrate Jeremy Toljan last season.
Hakimi is only at Dortmund on loan but he arrived with a reputation for being one of the best prospects in the world. His performances in the World Cup were absolutely incredible and it came as a surprise when he didn’t start playing from the go under Lucien Favre.
After this performance, however, Favre will have extra motivation to use him more often. Hakimi dominated his flank and was an absolute boss. Not only was he solid in attack and provided a passing option every single time, he bailed out the defense on numerous occasions and flawlessly moved from playing a full-back to a centre-back to a wing-back as and when necessary. His combination play was absolutely phenomenal with Pulisic and that’s a massive positive going forward.
His performances came as bittersweet since he’s only on loan but if Dortmund can somehow manage to sign him it will be worth every penny they spend. His wonderful performance was capped off with a golazo and that summed up his night perfectly.
Lucien Favre rotated his team and gave several youngsters crucial, confidence-building minutes
I have been guilty of criticising Lucien Favre for not rotating and he surprised me with the line-up. Dortmund started Hakimi, Zagadou, Pulisic and Jacob Bruun Larsen. The coach even brought on Julian Weigl in the last half hour to replace Axel Witsel.
The midfielder showed class and his passing was impressive while breaking any hint of danger. In a 7-goal rout, even Weigl managed to get on the score-sheet, which is good.
Weigl has been unlucky since the departure of Thomas Tuchel as his form had dropped and injuries kept hindering his flow. His reintroduction to the squad, however, is a welcome situation.
It was good to see so many youngsters on the pitch playing well and combining like they’d been playing together for years.
Jadon Sancho had a fantastic night as well and added a late goal to the scoreboard. These kinds of performances show how good the Englishman can be and how lucky BVB are to have signed him when they had the chance.
Exciting times are ahead for BVB and the future is in safe hands with so many talented youngsters waiting to impress and perform.
This result is good but not a true indicator of the team’s ability
Borussia Dortmund looked incredibly dominant and the scoreline suggests as much. However, the fans need to be grounded as this was a recently promoted team and it was always going to be an easy game. It didn’t help that their tactical set-up was poor and their three-man back-line lacked the quality to control so many forwards.
Favre rotated his side so that does make things impressive to a certain degree but even then, there were a host of elite starters who had a massive role to play in the result. The likes of Witsel and Delaney absolutely dominated the opposition and the latter’s movement was a constant nuisance. Witsel allowed the team to control the midfield and win the ball back in important areas of the pitch.
However, the defense did show its inexperience on the counter several times as the opposition managed to sneak past the midfielders into the final-third on more than one occasion. If it wasn’t for some incredible individual performances, the score-line could have skewed a little. Zagadou, in particular, was caught out of position several times and his positioning was almost always between the full-back and center-half position, which meant that he was prone to the press. He did a good job defensively, however, and showed a glimpse of what he can offer if given the chance.
All in all, this was a good performance made even better by the number of youngsters involved in the game.