Failure to Find Momentum Undoes Borussia Dortmund in Another Painful Defeat

Borussia Dortmund slumped back into the relegation zone on Saturday afternoon, with a 1-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin ensuring the club's ninth defeat of the Bundesliga this season.

Jurgen Klopp would have been cursing his luck—not for the first time this year—when none other than Julian Schieber, the former Dortmund striker, skipped past Mats Hummels and then Marcel Schmelzer to finish a delightful solo run and score the only goal of the game.

The Black and Yellows can't find a goal for love or money at the moment, yet here was a former reject of the side showing them exactly how it was done. 

Much hope was placed on Saturday's game, with the 1-0 win over Hoffenheim last week offering something of a supposed turning point in Dortmund's season. This was the game they would win, build up some momentum and turn their season around. Alas, it wasn't to be.

We've been here before. Perhaps too often for some fans. The former German champions continue to slump just after a rousing victory in the Bundesliga. The Hoffenheim game meant so much, just like the win over Borussia Monchengladbach before that, yet each time this side fail to add to their success and build some kind of form. 

Klopp’s decision to play both Sebastian Kehl and Sven Bender in front of the defence initially seemed like a wise move. Pushing Ilkay Gundogan up to the No. 10 role meant the two defensive midfielders could cover the centre of the park and allow the attacking players to play their game with little fear of defensive responsibilities. 

Yet that didn’t exactly pan out, as Dortmund instead looked flat, functional and far from threatening in front of the Hertha goal. Rather than offer defensive cover, Kehl and Bender instead suffocated any counter-attack their side hoped to make in the first half. 

Klopp noticed this, too, and ultimately pulled his former captain off at half-time for the striker Adrian Ramos. 

Yet nothing came from it, and once again this side looked out of ideas in front of goal. Henrikh Mkhitaryan continued to run into dead ends, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked far from useful against a side who ensured he played in front of them and Ciro Immobile missed each of the few chances offered to him throughout the game. 

Klopp will, however, take confidence from the continued return to form of Gundogan in midfield. The German international has looked far from fit since returning to the first team, but his touch has returned and so has the magic he possesses in his right foot. 

Like Marco Reus, Gundogan seems immune to the rut that has overcome this squad, yet seems incapable of winning games single-handedly. If Dortmund are intent on descending further into chaos in the Bundesliga, fans will at least take courage from this player’s return to prominence this season. 

Such fans would of course tell us that a win against Hertha on Saturday would have been nothing more than an unexpected surprise considering their run of luck lately. For neither they nor their coach have seen their club dominate away games in quite some time. 

In fact, Dortmund now haven’t won an away game in the Bundesliga since their opening match on the road against Augsburg at the end of August. Since then, this side have struggled to even pick up solitary points from one game to the next at away grounds across Germany. 

It's this inability to pull two results together to form something of a run or an upsurge in form that has truly crippled any effort to pull Dortmund out of their current rut. At times it seems as though this squad just need a push, a little helping hand for the first few steps, before they can truly get going. Yet, as we saw on Saturday and in countless games this season, they often seem incapable of making that first step. 

Dortmund seem so far away from any sense of success at the moment, as they continue to drift in the dangerous waters of relegation without a paddle or indeed any momentum behind them.