Marco Rose: Borussia Dortmund’s defeat against Sporting Lisbon was deserved

Borussia Dortmund have been eliminated from the UEFA Champions League following their 3-1 loss to Sporting Lisbon. Head coach Marco Rose has pointed to a lack of conviction as one of the reasons for this defeat.

For so many years, Borussia Dortmund’s draws in the Champions League were far from the most favorable. Despite this, Dortmund have for the most part been able to pull through, qualifying for the round of 16 in all but 2 seasons; in the 2015/16 season when they finished 7th in the league the year prior and started in the Europa League from the off, and in the 2017/18 season when they stuttered under the “era of the two Peters”.

This year, the draw seemed to put Borussia Dortmund in the driver’s seat. To go out in the group stage against opposition like Sporting Lisbon, Ajax and Besiktas seemed unfathomable at the start. Alas, under Erik Ten Haag, Ajax have been playing some exquisite football, tearing through the group like a burgeoning thunderstorm, looking to replicate if not improve on what was a phenomenal push in the 2018/19 season which saw them reach the semi finals of Europe’s most prestigious competition.

Sporting, for their part, while not as phenomenal, were able to capitalize on the problems that have plagued the Schwarzgelben since the start of the season – a disorganized and tired midfield, lackluster defending, and a front line with hit or miss performances.

Each of the above mentioned concerns can be analyzed as a reason for why Dortmund are out of the competition, but Marco Rose pointed to another facet of their game that was lacking in the post match interview:

"“It’s simple to say but if we can’t be more consistent and play with more conviction then the defeat was deserved. We gave so little away, but at the same time it’s too easy for opponents to score against us. Tonight our opponents were more uncompromising and clinical than we were.”“It is a bitter defeat. The clear goal was to be in all three competitions next year. The Champions League is over now. That’s quite a blow.”"

In many ways, Rose is right. A chronic problem Dortmund have had is the tendency to allow their opposition back into games, despite controlling them very early on. There has been some slight improvement to this in recent months, starting with the Edin Terzic era and then with Marco Rose’s takeover at the helm, but there’s clearly still work to be done in this regard.

The problem is however, that work can’t truly commence until the club have a healthy squad. Injuries have plagued Dortmund from the start of this campaign to a degree of intensity that seems unrivalled in all of Europe’s top five leagues, and while Rose didn’t wish to speak about suspensions or injuries after the game, the fact remains that with the merry-go-round of players both in and out of the starting 11 and training, it would be difficult for any manager to really get his style across and to even cultivate a mentality for success into this side.

Borussia Dortmund’s injury woes also highlight the need to consider what personnel within the squad may need to be moved on, considering their inability to take their chance to help the team when injury crises occur. While there is no way a club can plan for the amount of enforced rotation in the squad this year, key elements have been exploited by the opposition time and time again. Talk of moving on the likes of Axel Witsel and Nico Schulz should now become even more urgent, considering both are on relatively high wages and both have seemingly lost a step at the club. Both the squad and the players themselves could do with a fresh start somewhere else.

It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom however, depending on how the club chooses to play out their current situation. The Europa League is a competition they haven’t won yet, so picking it up wouldn’t be a bad way to compensate for the fact that they’ve been knocked into the competition. Furthermore, the team can potentially now put more focus on domestic silverware. Dortmund sit one point behind Bayern Munich in the league, which is a favorable position despite not putting in the best performances. They will have to shake this defeat off quickly however, because competing with Bayern won’t only mean giving them a fight on December 4th, it’ll also mean they need to continue getting results in the league, and start showing the conviction and clinical edge their manager requires of them going forward.