Derby Loss Rings in Borussia Dortmund's 1st Crisis of the Jurgen Klopp Era

Saturday's derby loss to Schalke was a double blow for Borussia Dortmund, who not only were defeated by their bitter rivals but on the lowest of lows finished off a week that saw their chances of winning the Bundesliga diminish to near-zero.

Although there have been some real positives this campaign, Dortmund's recent form quite conclusively suggests a situation that has been unprecedented in the Jurgen Klopp era: a crisis.

Some may say that three games without a win is too early to declare a crisis, especially considering Dortmund's injury concerns. The problem is, as of now it's hard to foresee a way out of their current mess at any point in the next couple of weeks.

If Dortmund were ever going to stand a chance of winning the Bundesliga, it was by taking advantage of Bayern's predictable post-World Cup fitness concerns.

And in early August, the difference between the preparedness of the two clubs was substantial: BVB played Bayern off the park in the DFL-Superpokal. With Mario Gotze's form peaking and the fitness of many other stars progressing rapidly, however, the window of opportunity is now all but fully closed.

Bayern gave BVB some chances to take an advantage: The title holders were held to draws in two of their first four Bundesliga games. But with Dortmund having won just two of their first six Bundesliga fixtures, including two losses and a draw in their last three, they are now seven points off the pace set by Bayern.

Game over.

Dortmund's current problems are many. The most obvious is that their strikers are not functioning, at least not as well as Robert Lewandowski. Ciro Immobile has two goals in seven appearances; Adrian Ramos three in eight. Their collective tally is acceptable, but taking two spots in the lineup, it is not enough.

And the Lewandowski precedent suggests it may be quite some time before they start to deliver regularly if one or both indeed become reliable, fearsome scorers.

The Pole took more than one full season to fully settle in Dortmund, scoring a modest nine goals in 43 appearances in his first season. In his second, he scored two in seven Bundesliga appearances and zero in two in the Champions League before his hat-trick against Augsburg marked the turning point in his career at Dortmund.

Even now an established superstar, he's struggling to adapt at Bayern, where his goals tally stands at two in nine games.

Strikers are more difficult to replace than players of any other position; it's a simple and sad reality that Dortmund won't be able to expect much from Immobile and Ramos in the immediate future. Only with time and patience (and inevitable frustration and poor results) will they settle in.

The striker situation would be much more tolerable for Dortmund if they had attacking midfielders capable of picking up the slack. And to his credit, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has done a brilliant job, already scoring seven goals.

However, the Gabon international is an auxiliary forward, a finisher who only can play on the wing due to his pace. He's not a creator and therefore offers little in terms of creating chances for Immobile and Ramos to finish.

The player Dortmund miss the most is Marco Reus. Equally capable as a provider and a finisher, he's the kind of player who could take the pressure off the new forwards by scoring, and also creating chances for them and others.

Considering he's barely played since May and will miss the majority of the next month with a second ankle ligament tear in three months, the Reus situation won't get better at any point in the near future.

Dortmund's secondary option as a scorer-creator, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, is similarly sidelined for most of the next month; Jakub Blaszczykowski also remains injured, having not played competitively since January.

Overall, Dortmund have next to nothing in midfield in terms of ball retention and creative playmaking quality.

In the derby, their midfield consisted of auxiliary forward Aubameyang, center-back Matthias Ginter, pure holding player Sven Bender and winger-turned-full-back Kevin Grosskreutz. These four supported pure finishers Ramos and Immobile. There was no playmaker, no dribbler, no slick passer.

This brings up the next problem: the absence of Ilkay Gundogan and Nuri Sahin, coupled with Milos Jojic's inability to effectively cover for the injured duo.

BVB missed Gundogan through almost the entire 2013-14 campaign, but Sahin's presence made his loss much more manageable. The BVB academy graduate was excellent, not far off the form that made him the best player in the Bundesliga in 2010-11. And Dortmund were lucky that he remained fit.

Sahin has missed the entire season thus far, however, and won't be back before November. Gundogan may return before then, but it's been more than a year since he last played and his sharpness and fitness will take considerable time to develop once more. BVB had a tertiary option in Jojic, but the Serb has been poor this season thus far, his distribution lacking in precision and his decision-making rather suspect.

It may sound strange to those who saw Dortmund's midfield play Arsenal off the park earlier this month, but BVB could be without a reliable, in-form ball-playing central midfielder until mid-November or later. They'll be able to step up their level once in awhile for the biggest games, as seen against the Gunners, but without Sahin or Gundogan in good form, more results like the derby loss to Schalke or their previous draw with Stuttgart are easily predictable.

The midfield situation has had a spillover effect on defense which, without a stabilizing force in the No. 8 role, begins to crumble rather quickly.

Dortmund have hemorrhaged goals this season at an average of just under two per game. Playing fast-paced, frenetic football as Dortmund do under Klopp requires players who can keep their sharpness while playing at lung-bursting speed, namely Sahin, Gundogan, Reus and Shinji Kagawa.

When this falls apart, sloppiness in midfield ensues and, especially in the deeper midfield positions, this creates absolute chaos at the back.

Many of the goals BVB have conceded this season can be chalked up as unnecessary, coming from silly errors that may not have come had they had a bit more control and coolness in the center.

But now their style of play has devolved into a combination of mad sprinting to win the ball and hoofing it hopefully upfield towards the forwards. The fine technical structure that Klopp has implemented in recent years has fallen apart in the absence of any technicians in midfield.

Therein lies the problem: With what sadly amounts to a rather ordinary team at his disposal, Klopp's system is not appropriate. The subtleties are gone.

Klopp has, in the past, been able to cope with the losses of star players, namely Sahin, Kagawa and Gotze, but in each case, it was only one key player that was absent.

For the first time in the Klopp era, BVB are stuck in a situation in which there are so many important players missing that Klopp has to make radical changes to his system for the club to survive. That's why they are now in crisis.

Dortmund have come a long way under Klopp but now face the toughest time in his tenure as head coach.

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