And just like that, there’s calm. For a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover – and, in this case, not forging your opinions based purely on results – have a look at Borussia Dortmund’s start to 2023. Statistically it’s been perfect but as with so many other trajectories BVB have mapped in the past, it hasn’t been a straight line.
Three weeks ago we might have expected their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea, which begins with at Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday, to be two well-heeled bald men scrapping over a comb. Yet if Graham Potter might need to draw consistent results from the mass of expensive talent assembled in the January transfer window, there are no such clouds darkening the Westfalen sky. Stability has always been what Edin Terzic has sough and now he seems to be finding it. Saturday’s hard-fought victory at Werder Bremen was a sixth win out of six since German football resumed following the World Cup.
The mood has lifted and was further enhanced by this win in the north, chiselled out with a resolve that has not always been there. “We don’t get stuck in negative things anymore,” said Julian Brandt, after his stylish second goal sealed the deal. “We just keep going.” There were moments that needed to be toughed out here, but BVB never looked like crumbling.
It’s all such a difference not just to before Christmas – when they signed off for the World Cup break with successive deflating defeats by Wolfsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach that dropped them to sixth place – but to the resumption in January. The opening two wins of the current sequence, the 4-3 win against Augsburg and the late victory at Mainz were all but stolen, classic Dortmund manifestations of flashing moments of quality dragging their heads above the chaos.
That skittishness has given way to the beginnings of genuine resolve. This was a game they could have easily lost just a few months (and even weeks) back, against a home team boosted by successive wins who had already pulled the rug from under their opponents this season. Werder took their first three points since returning to the top flight in extraordinary circumstances in Dortmund back in August. Having trailed 2-0 as late as the 89th minute, Ole Werner’s team pulled out a win for the ages, emerging 3-2 victors.
It was the mishap to outdo them all, and one which threatened to define Dortmund’s season, another wasted campaign of promise undone by disorganisation. Yet recent results and performances have suggested a penny dropping. Terzic, a beloved and valued part of the club who many felt was simply not up to the job as the haphazard displays unfolded, is showing his teeth. His coaching is coming to the fore and it did again in Bremen, when he threw on Salih Özcan and Jamie Bynoe-Gittins midway through the second half, to simultaneously shield his defence and provide a touch of extra incision. Seventy-one seconds after his introduction, Bynoe-Gittins smashed in a left-footed shot at Jiri Pavlenka’s near post and BVB were finally in business.
More than a lucky break, it showed Terzić’s increasing comfort with taking tough decisions, replacing skipper Marco Reus – who had scored a first goal since September to win the DfB Pokal tie at Bochum in the week – with Özcan in a move that would have been deemed over-defensive had his team not used it as a platform to grab the game so instantly. To have Brandt, a player who has clearly been coached to a higher level by Terzić having been thought of as a relative flop for much of the time since he arrived from Leverkusen in 2019, cap things off only underlined the point.
“Jule has developed so much,” said Terzic. “He is very fit, always one of our best runners and, at the moment, our most consistent player.” Brandt has changed his diet, going gluten and dairy-free, and looks more durable and athletic, but he is also full of confidence and desire to take on responsibility. His flourishing in something akin to a No 10 role has even suggested that Reus, a club legend who is out of contract in the summer, may find himself squeezed out.
It isn’t just Brandt who is excelling under the demands for higher standards. Emre Can, often cited as part of the club’s problem in harbouring highly-paid, underperforming veterans, has been excellent since returning to the XI in place of Özcan, a talented holder who has been made to understand of late that inconsistency in his role just cannot fly - especially since that defensive midfield spot is vital in giving Jude Bellingham, the side’s undisputed star, freedom to roam and bring his attacking gifts to bear.
BVB do have a few issues ahead of the Blues’ visit, not least the fitness of Youssoufa Moukoko, who limped off in the first half after being on the end of a heavy challenge from Leonardo Bittencourt and whose ankle injury “doesn’t look too good” according to Terzic. Meanwhile, Terzic must continue to use Sébastien Haller, so bright since his triumphant return from cancer treatment, sensibly, as the programme becomes more demanding.
What bodes well for this week, though, is that Dortmund seem to be moving past their tendency to “do a Dortmund”. Though they are only three points behind Bayern, nobody is talking about a title push – and those feet on the ground are exactly what Terzic and his team need to flourish.
Schalke 0-0 Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich 3-0 Bochum, Hoffenheim 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen, Mainz 3-1 Augsburg, Freiburg 2-1 Stuttgart, Werder Bremen 0-2 Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig 1-2 Union Berlin
Talking points
Between Bayern – who cruised past Bochum 3-0 without setting the world on fire – and Dortmund – “the madness continues”, in the words of Urs Fischer, his Union team in second place after a rousing comeback from a goal down to win in Leipzig. It was fired by Janik Haberer’s rocket from outside the area to equalise Benny Henrichs’ opener, setting Union on the way to a fourth comeback win in 2023. It is also worth noting that their total of 42 points from 20 games matches the total of Bayern’s champion teams from 2019 and 2020.
Remarkably it was joy all round in Berlin, with Hertha coming from a goal down to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-1 at Olympiastadion with three Berlin boys – Jessic Ngankam, birthday boy Marton Dardai and Derry Scherhant – all on the scoresheet to lift them out of the bottom two. The president Kay Bernstein talking of Hertha’s youth being the future is one thing, but this was it made flesh.
Köln got Karneval season started in style, turning up the heat in the second half to beat Champions League high-fliers Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 in a buoyant atmosphere. The outstanding Ellyes Skhiri, whose contract is running down and who turned down a move to Lyon in winter, scored twice, making him the Bundesliga’s top scorer in 2023 and prompting a brief, terse exchange in the frosty press conference between coaches Steffen Baumgart and Oliver Glasner.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 20 | 41 | 43 |
| 2 | Union Berlin | 20 | 11 | 42 |
| 3 | Borussia Dortmund | 20 | 14 | 40 |
| 4 | Freiburg | 20 | 1 | 37 |
| 5 | RB Leipzig | 20 | 14 | 36 |
| 6 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 20 | 11 | 35 |
| 7 | Wolfsburg | 20 | 12 | 30 |
| 8 | Bayer Leverkusen | 20 | 1 | 27 |
| 9 | Werder Bremen | 20 | -8 | 27 |
| 10 | Borussia M'gladbach | 20 | 2 | 26 |
| 11 | Cologne | 20 | 1 | 26 |
| 12 | Mainz | 20 | -2 | 26 |
| 13 | Augsburg | 20 | -11 | 21 |
| 14 | Hoffenheim | 20 | -10 | 19 |
| 15 | VfL Bochum | 20 | -25 | 19 |
| 16 | Hertha Berlin | 20 | -12 | 17 |
| 17 | Stuttgart | 20 | -13 | 16 |
| 18 | Schalke 04 | 20 | -27 | 12 |
