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Reason's for Dortmund to believe it's their year in the Bundesliga

  /  autty

It has been seven long seasons since Borussia Dortmund last lifted the Bundesliga Meisterschale.

During that time, they have watched their bitter rivals Bayern Munich establish an unprecedented dominance over the league, winning the title seven times in a row by anything up to 25 points.

There have been some agonising near-misses in that time as well, particularly last season when Dortmund led the way until early March before a collapse in form that included a 5-0 thrashing at the Allianz Arena.

But optimism is growing around the Westfalenstadion that this could be Dortmund's year at last - with a variety of different factors breeding confidence in Lucien Favre's team.

We take a closer look at some of the reasons why Dortmund could well win their first Bundesliga title since the Jurgen Klopp era.

Sancho going from strength to strength

At the heart of everything positive about Dortmund so far this season has been a young Englishman.

Jadon Sancho may only be 19 but he is playing regularly with a match-winning maturity in his game that continues to take the breath away.

With three goals and six assists for Dortmund - plus two goals and an assist for England against Kosovo last week - Sancho really is in a purple patch.

But really, the former Manchester City winger is just picking up where he left off last season, his first full campaign in German football.

Since the beginning of 2018-19, no other player in Europe's top five leagues has more assists than Sancho - and that includes Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard.

He was once again in his creative element on Saturday as Dortmund eased past Bayer Leverkusen - a fellow Champions League qualifier - 4-0 to remain second in the table.

Sancho has started all but one of Dortmund's last 22 league games and is very much now one of the first names on Favre's teamsheet.

Indeed, Saturday was his 50th Bundesliga appearance and all before the age of 20. His days in City's reserves seem a long time ago now.

They have Europe's most in-form striker

It really is the perfect moment for Paco Alcacer to face his former club Barcelona, as he will when Dortmund open their Champions League campaign on Tuesday night.

Alcacer has spoken out in the lead-up to the match about how he was treated badly by some members of the Barcelona hierarchy during his two seasons there.

'Many people behaved very well with me - my team-mates and the fans treated me well - but many people behaved very badly,' he told SER Catalunya.

'It's very important for me to see those signs of trust and in the end many people did not show it.'

In the end, moving to Dortmund as opposed to competing for a place against the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez proved the making of the Spanish forward.

Including his initial loan spell in Germany, Alcacer has scored 26 times in 38 outings for Dortmund, including an impressive seven in six matches this season.

It's form that has seen him recalled to the Spain squad and he also looks set to take on Bayern forward Robert Lewandowski for the Bundesliga's top scorer prize.

Any champion side needs a reliable goalscorer and Alcacer could easily fire Dortmund to the title if this blistering form continues.

Defensive stability is slowly coming

When it came down to it, two defensive horror shows cost Dortmund the Bundesliga title last season - the 5-0 loss at Bayern and the 4-2 defeat to local rivals Schalke three weeks later.

Steps were taken to address a slightly leaky defence with some efficient transfer business over the summer.

Mats Hummels returned from Bayern for £33million some three years after leaving for Bavaria, while Germany international Nico Schulz arrived from Hoffenheim for £22m.

Results so far

August 17 Augsburg (H) 5-1

August 23 Cologne (A) 3-0

August 31 Union Berlin (A) 1-3

Sept. 14 Bayer Leverkusen (H) 4-0

August 9 KFC Uerdingen (A) 2-0

August 3 Bayern Munich (H) 2-0

Favre has played Schulz at left-back in the opening weeks of the season with Hummels asked to form a central defensive partnership with the Swiss international Manuel Akanji.

There were a few worrying signs in Dortmund's only setback of the season so far, a shock 3-1 loss to Union Berlin just before the international break, especially in their poor defending of corners.

However, Hummels and Akanji looked far more comfortable in the win over Leverkusen and were duly rewarded with a first league clean sheet of the season.

It looks like a promising defensive partnership once both have become fully attuned to one another's games.

Midfield stability and creativity

Another factor in the rout of Leverkusen was the strong performance of Thomas Delaney and Axel Witzel in tandem in central midfield.

Favre has been tinkering a little in this area, with Belgian star Witsel starting the first two games of the league season against Julian Weigl.

Delaney was brought in to replace the injured Witsel at Union Berlin and things didn't go especially well, so Favre went with Witsel and Delaney at the weekend and may have struck gold.

The way they nullified Leverkusen's threat, pushing them into wider areas to no great effect, suggests they will be favoured going forward.

Ahead of them, Dortmund have the capability to unpick even the most organised defence.

With Sancho stationed on the right, they can play either Julian Brandt or Thorgan Hazard - both summer signings - on the left.

Then there's the captain Marco Reus, who sits in the middle to pick defence-splitting passes, feed the ball wide to the wingers, or sneak into scoring positions himself, as he did twice on Saturday.

Two ways of playing

The majority of sides Dortmund will face in the Bundesliga will set up with a compact defensive line and try and keep them at bay.

But Dortmund had enough creativity in the team to overcome that in the 5-1 opening thrashing of Augsburg - albeit having fallen behind inside the first minute - and their 3-1 win at Cologne.

They were sloppy in defence and wasteful with their many chances against Union, but there's enough to suggest their 4-2-3-1 and personnel has enough to stretch teams out of position by constant pressure and a high press.

Dortmund fixtures

Bundesliga unless stated

Tuesday Barcelona (H)

Champions League Group F

Sunday Eintracht Frankfurt (A)

September 28 Werder Bremen (H)

October 2 Slavia Prague (A)

Champions League Group F

October 5 Freiburg (A)

October 19 Borussia Monchengladbach (H)

However, in the game with Leverkusen, Favre was happy for his side to see less of the ball - 37 per cent - and attack on the counter through quick transitions.

Given the speed of Sancho and the width in the team, this worked a treat with the goals arriving from low crosses.

It offered a template for when Dortmund face the bigger teams in the Bundesliga and Champions League and shows they don't necessarily have to dominate possession to be effective.

In fact, Barcelona should take note ahead of Tuesday night because the more players they commit forward, the easier it could be for Dortmund to pick them off on the counter.

Bayern look genuinely vulnerable

The feeling this could be Dortmund's year has only been enhanced by the fact Bayern have already dropped four points this season.

They were held at home by Hertha Berlin on the season's opening night and, less surprisingly, drew with another pretender to their throne, RB Leipzig, on Saturday.

This followed a summer of uncharacteristically late and disorganised business in the transfer market plus lingering pressure on manager Niko Kovac.

There's a sense Bayern's team might take a little while to settle this season though a 3-0 win at Schalke and 6-1 drubbing of Mainz in between the two draws suggests the old ruthlessness remains.

They were profligate in the first half at Leipzig and then put under serious pressure in the second before holding out for a point.

But they endured a torrid autumn last season and still emerged as champions, so it would be incredible foolish to crown Dortmund champions just yet.

The real acid test will be the first meeting between the two teams at the Allianz Arena on November 9.

Related: Borussia Dortmund