Why Immobile Is the Dortmund Player with Most to Prove in Final Weeks of Season

Looking through the Borussia Dortmund squad, it would be a stretch of the imagination to label any player as "in-form."

Despite experiencing a bit of a revival around the time that Marco Reus' contract was extended, Jurgen Klopp's men have slipped back into playing uninspired, error-laden football. Their Champions League exit to Juventus following a 3-0 loss at home was a particularly damning indictment of a side that have lost belief and currently look to be without a plan.

There are many Dortmund players who need to step up if the club are to achieve their potential and reach the level they appreciated as recently as a year ago. But above all, the pressure is heaviest on striker Ciro Immobile.

Signed to replace superstar Robert Lewandowski, the odds were always steep for Immobile, whose style of play upon signing from Torino was very different from that which the Poland international brought to the table at BVB. The Italian showed some real quality last season and finished the campaign as the top scorer in Serie A, but his confidence has been low all season long and, after being benched throughout the second leg of the tie with his former club Juve, he's completely fallen out of favor with Klopp.

In the past, the trainer has been able to replace departed stars like Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa with top-class talent. Marco Reus was an instant success in place of the Japan international. And although it took the majority of a year for him to convert from an attacking player to an effective holding midfielder, Ilkay Gundogan eventually became an excellent ersatz Sahin.

Like Gundogan, who played a very minimal role for much of the 2011-12 campaign after struggling in the fall, Immobile is approaching a now-or-never point in his BVB career as his first season at the Signal-Iduna Park draws toward its close. Thus far, he's delivered very little: just 10 goals overall and three in the Bundesliga. He looks to be a square peg in a round hole, his style of play as a poacher is not changing to suit his team.

Klopp should be faulted for his inability or unwillingness to adapt the team to be a bit more suitable to his star signing, but from Immobile's perspective, the striker should be doing much, much more to improve himself and become a useful member of the Ruhr side's squad.

Martin Meissner/Associated Press/Associated Press

There are other Dortmund players who are struggling or flat-out failing to contribute anything meaningful to the club, notably Henrikh Mkhitaryan. But the Armenian is one of three attacking midfielders in the starting lineup; if he struggles, at least he is not eliminating an entire facet of the team.

As the only striker, Immobile has to deliver goals in order to justify his presence on the pitch. If not, he's simply occupying a spot that another of his teammates could be filling with potentially greater effect.

Not only is there a burden on a striker to deliver to justify his use over another, there also is the fact that a lone center forward's role is in many ways more important than that of players in other positions. In the modern game, the rules have been modified (for example, the away goals rule and the increase in value of a win from two to three points) to promote attacking football. There is no position more important to scoring than that of striker, so the importance of Immobile stepping up is even greater. 

Dortmund have scored just 34 goals this season, one more than they've conceded and an average of just 1.31 per game. Although the defense indeed needs some work, play at the back is not as much dependent on any one player as is attacking. And in the case of defending, one way to ease pressure from the back five and destroy an opponent's confidence is to score.

When BVB became back-to-back Bundesliga champions, and even when they lost the league title by a landslide in the last two seasons, Lewandowski was regularly able to score and assist goals that would put matches out of reach before half-time.

Facing a side that in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 averaged no fewer than 2.35 goals per game, opponents played with fear. But now most see a wounded, fragile opponent in BVB, and they look to capitalize on the chance to take the 2013 Champions League finalists' scalp.

Above all positions, replacing a star striker is the biggest challenge. The loss of Luis Suarez saw Liverpool crash out of the Champions League early this season, and the departures of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto'o have seen Milan and Inter, respectively, fall into obscurity. Even in their apparent upgrade from Mario Mandzukic to Lewandowski, Bayern haven't received more output from the Pole than they had before.

Now Dortmund are in a similar position, having lost Lewandowski and brought in Immobile with the hopes that the Italian could fill the void. It was always going to be a huge ask of the 25-year-old, but his failure to deliver any amount of consistency and inspire confidence in his ability to do so has been consummate.

BVB need a quality center forward who can score goals on a regular basis. Entering the final weeks of the campaign, the pressure will be greatest on Immobile to find the quality and consistency he achieved at Torino. If he can't, he could be headed for an early exit from the Signal-Iduna Park.

@Mr_Bundesliga