Have Borussia Dortmund Finally Turned Around Their Dreadful Bundesliga Season?

The biggest news to come out of Borussia Dortmund this month has undoubtedly been the new deal Marco Reus agreed that will keep him at the club until 2019, meaning Friday’s clash with Mainz was more of a celebration about things to come than the very real threat of further Bundesliga anguish.

Fortunately, for neutrals and critics alike, Mainz were in no mood to cater to such moods and took to Dortmund like so many clubs in the German top division have this season. Within 60 seconds, Elkin Soto had put the away side in the lead and the Westfalenstadion suddenly felt the cold, hard slap of reality upon it.

Yet, for the first time this season, Jurgen Klopp’s team responded with a proper retaliation. It may have taken until the second half for the Black and Yellows to grab their equaliser and ultimately go on to win the game, but Dortmund looked better and determined. 

Such a result means that Dortmund have now managed two consecutive league wins for the first time this season and, crucially, dragged themselves out of the relegation zone.

Datawrapper

So is this the defining moment of Dortmund’s season? Have Klopp’s side finally turned their troubled season around?

On paper, it certainly seems as though things are moving in the right direction. When we take a look at the graphic above (data taken from Transfermarkt), the indication is that Dortmund are playing much better football. 

Although Klopp’s side have lost one of their four games in 2015, they still boast a ratio of 2.3 goals per game over the matches—a ratio that far outweighs the season average of 1.19. 

There are a number of reasons behind this. 

Perhaps the most notable has been Klopp’s decision to drop Ciro Immobile for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon striker has always been one of the club’s most consistent goalscorers this season, but with three goals in the last two games, Aubameyang has gone a long way toward cementing his place in the team and improving its success on the pitch.

For a team such as Dortmund, who have struggled to score in the Bundesliga this season, his contribution has been worth its weight in gold. It comes with little surprise that with Aubameyang's goals, results have swiftly followed.

Aside from the very obvious source of goals that has popped up over the past two weeks, Klopp has done well to integrate Nuri Sahin, Ilkay Gundogan and Shinji Kagawa into midfield in a bid to get the team playing proper, attacking football once again. 

Where Sebastian Kehl and Sven Bender would hack and slack in the centre of midfield with all the subtlety and finesse of a sledgehammer, Sahin and Gundogan now weave silk strings of attacking play and have made Dortmund much more potent in attack. 

Similarly, Kagawa has come back into this side with the determination of a man desperate to prove he has something left to offer this club and replaced a largely ineffective Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Although the Japan international may not have many assists on the board, his movement and passing has made a big difference in the final third for Dortmund. 

Ultimately, the victories over Mainz and Freiburg will mean little if Klopp’s side can’t add to such performances with similar results against bigger and better teams.

Dortmund face Stuttgart on Friday in what must now be considered a must-win game before they take on the might of Juventus in the Champions League and welcome Schalke to the Westfalenstadion for the second Ruhr derby of the season. 

Here is where we’ll see the true extent of Dortmund’s revival. Overcoming those beside them in the relegation fight is all well and good, but a second slump in form may be on the cards if the team can’t raise their game against better opponents. 

Then, and only then, will we be able to say whether Dortmund have finally turned this troubled season around. 

@sbienkowski