Ilkay Gundogan Clicks Borussia Dortmund into Gear with a Win at Freiburg

Borussia Dortmund managed to pull themselves out of the automatic-relegation spots and further gloom this weekend when they travelled to Freiburg and came away with all three points in a 3-0 win.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have truly hit rock bottom this season, lamenting in the Bundesliga’s bottom spot for the past two weeks while talk circulated—as per Sky Sport on February 5—that the charismatic coach may have seen enough and decided to pack it all in.

Yet on Saturday we finally saw the famous Black and Yellows click into gear. The passes reached their intended targets, the tackles were on time, the shots hit their mark, the goals went in and ultimately Dortmund looked anew.

Once the initial celebrations and cheers simmer, fans of the club will undoubtedly take a step back and appreciate the fact that Freiburg were perhaps the easiest side Dortmund could have played at the moment. But don’t let that take away from what looked like a much-sharper performance.

Klopp’s intention to go back to basics when the current crisis began to loom over the club seemed like a logical decision, but instead we’ve seen the former Bundesliga champions forget how to play attacking football.

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

Wrapped up in the drama, pressure and antics of failing to get results each week, Dortmund lost sight of what took them to the summit of German football in the first place and ultimately lost their identity as a side. The team stopped playing football, the goals dried up and positive results became less and less frequent.

The club’s desire to climb back up the table has interestingly coincided with Klopp’s intent to get the team playing football once again. Removing the midfield gladiators of Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl for the more technical playmakers in Ilkay Gundogan and Nuri Sahin initially offered little difference, but we’re now seeing the fruits of such labour with performances such as the one against Freiburg.

Gundogan, the terrier-like German international was on the top of his game on Saturday, buzzing from one box to the next, weaving plays from left to right. Very few players in the game tick as many boxes as the young Dortmund player, and when he’s fit and in the mood, he has the capacity to turn games on their head.

Like a broth being spoiled by too many cooks—played in this analogy by Dortmund’s numerous attackers—Gundogan has came back into this side and shown that a great passer of the ball is absolutely essential for any attacking line. Even one with the likes of Marco Reus and Shinji Kagawa in it. Ciaran Fahey of The Associated Press provided Klopp's comments regarding the win:

The 24-year-old demanded the ball at all times and made sure he was always in the right place, but most importantly, he forced his team into once again playing football. The high balls and lofted passes may have still been noticeable at times on Saturday, but there were certainly fewer with Gundogan in the middle of the pitch.

According to WhoScored.com, the midfielder had a pass accuracy of 80.6 percent, toppling all in the Dortmund side on the day, aside from Kagawa, and was the only one who attempted and pulled off an accurate through ball, leading to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first goal in the 71st minute.

Dortmund have huffed and puffed up front all season and struggled to understand why they simply couldn’t score from one week to the next. Yet now that Gundogan is back and fighting fit, it all looks as though the mystery has been solved: Klopp has his playmaker back, and his side look ready to start moving up the Bundesliga table.

@SBienkowski