A Progress Report on Borussia Dortmund's Squad at the End of March

March has been an odd month for Borussia Dortmund. Despite being knocked out of the Champions League and floundering in the middle of the Bundesliga table, such hardships don't come close to the mayhem the club was in just a few months ago.

Football fans may be fickle, but the Westfalenstadion faithful are just grateful the worst looks to have passed. 

As such, it's time to look over the club's past five games of football and decide which members of Jurgen Klopp's squad made the grade and who continued to underperform. Dortmund may be having something of a transitional season, but that is far from a legitimate excuse.

Here is the progress report for Dortmund over the course of March.

Defence

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

Dortmund only lost one game in the month of March, and that was largely due to the three clean sheets they managed to record over the five games.

Klopp has remained resolute with his back line despite a number of injuries to key players, including to Lukasz Piszczek and Erik Durm. As such, we’ve seen the likes of Oliver Kirch and Sokratis Papastathopoulos come into the side and play in unfamiliar roles on the flanks.

Kirch, a notable improvement to the former go-to alternative for right-back, Kevin Grosskreutz, has looked bright if not spectacular bombing down the right flank, while Sokratis has came in on limited occasions and guarded both the right and left flank well, yet offered very little in attack.

In contrast to both backup full-backs, Marcel Schmelzer has enjoyed a bright month on the left and routinely offered the only real attacking option from Dortmund’s back line. He may not be as polished as Klopp might like, but the Germany international has done well against limited opponents and provided some much needed contrast to the injury-ridden right wing.

As one would expect, Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic have kept their partnership in the middle of the park, yet as has seemed to be the story of the season, the former continues to prove just how important he is while the latter continues to puzzle fans and critics alike.

It’s not that Subotic is no longer a good defender—he absolutely is—but he doesn’t command that same sense of prestige like he once did. These two men would have been considered equals not so long ago, yet they now look leagues apart.

Between the sticks we saw a brief cameo for Mitchell Langerak in the DFB-Pokal tie against Dynamo Dresden, but besides that, it has been Roman Weidenfeller from one match to the next.

The German had the odd decent game—as seen against Cologne—but as was demonstrated quite clearly against Juventus, he is now prone to making simple mistakes when saving shots. Dortmund need a new 'keeper this summer, and we’re not sure if either Weidenfeller or Langerak will be sticking around for too long.

Midfield

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

The injury-enforced absence of Nuri Sahin over the course of March was felt throughout the team but nowhere quite as much as in midfield.

The Turkey international has been the playmaker who kept this team playing attacking football this season, and with his injury, we’ve seen the centre of Klopp’s side go through something of an identity crisis of late.

Ilkay Gundogan showed bright sparks against Hamburg but has since looked like the unfit, bloated has-been who haunted Dortmund’s injury list and the sideline for much of the start of this season. Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl try their best to play a brand of defensive football that does nothing but hamper the team’s style of play.

Similarly, when we look at the attacking midfielders who have frequented Dortmund’s midfield in March, we find very little to get excited about.

Shinji Kagawa has shown sparks of brilliance throughout this season, but his frustrating inability to do it on a consistent basis was never more pronounced than this month, when he produced poor performances against Hamburg and Cologne, which led to his absence against Juventus in the Champions League.

Granted, he looked back to his old self against Hannover, but one good game out of five simply won’t cut it at this level.

Such worries only worsen when we consider the curious case of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who continues to huff and puff with very little end product or joy for Dortmund. The Armenian missed the recent win over Hannover but did play against Cologne, Hamburg and, most surprisingly, Juventus. His performance level diminished with each passing game.

One positive to take from Dortmund’s midfield in March was the return of Jakub Blaszczykowski. Besides causing an error that led to one of Juventus’ goals, he has looked like his old self. Still far from fully fit and back to the player he once was, Blaszczykowski is still a welcome face for Klopp in these worrying times.

Attack

Massimo Pinca/Associated Press

A similar degree of frustration looms over Klopp’s front line, with only the recent win over Hannover saving the club’s key goalscorers from a rather disastrous month.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang—Dortmund’s top goalscorer this season—had a rather dreadful time against Hamburg, Cologne and Juventus, yet managed to pull himself back from the brink with two goals last time out.

Similarly, Marco Reus has looked tired and perhaps still unfit from a crunching challenge he received against Dresden at the start of March, putting in ineffective performances against Hamburg and, most worryingly, Juventus. Again, he turned it around against Hannover, but most people expected more from him in the crunch Champions League tie.

New boy Kevin Kampl continued treading along with particularly average games from one week to the next. Klopp’s determination to take him off or put him on—but never allow him the full 90 minutes—seems like an odd ploy and has certainly hampered his ability to integrate into the side. If he’s not fit, fine. But if he is, then let the bright youngster play and get a feel for his new club.

This then leaves us with Ciro Immobile and Adrian Ramos, both of whom continued to get limited minutes during March. Neither has really impressed nor offered anything different, suggesting either the manager doesn’t know what to do with them or they simply aren’t trying. Perhaps a little bit of both may be the real answer to this continually frustrating pair.