4 Borussia Dortmund Players with Key Roles to Play in 2015/16 Bundesliga Season

Borussia Dortmund may only be 90 minutes into the new Bundesliga season yet already the plans and systems which Thomas Tuchel hopes to use in this coming campaign seem clear for all to see.

The former Mainz manager has wasted little time going through Jurgen Klopp’s old side with a fine comb and deciphering which players will aid him and his side’s hopes in Germany and across Europe in the Europa League.

Here are four players who will hold a key role in Dortmund’s squad this season as they hope to regain their footing in the German football hierarchy.

Marcel Schmelzer

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Although he hasn’t always been the most consistent player for Dortmund down the years left-back Marcel Schmelzer remains, as ever, an important, if not vital, member of this squad.

The German international was in fantastic form against Gladbach, setting up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Dortmund’s second goal of the game amidst a barrage of excellent through balls throughout the match.

Like many in this squad, Schmelzer has look revitalised under the new manager, but also plays in a position that has very little cover aside from the young and inexperienced Jeremy Dudziak. If this new-look defender were to pick up a long-term injury this season, then Tuchel’s side may well be in trouble.

Julian Weigl

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Although very few could have predicted the quick rise of this young star, Julian Weigl’s quick introduction to the Dortmund first team has been applauded around the Westfalenstation stadium since his arrival this summer.

Yet rather than just being another talented youngster that the Bundesliga giants have hoovered up from the lower leagues, Weigl has come in to this side as a pivotal part of Tuchel’s plans. The central midfielder is a technical, ball-playing defensive midfielder and they’re in short supply in this side.

It speaks volumes of how important the youngster is to the side that Tuchel chose to start him over Sven Bender against Gladbach on Saturday. Until Nuri Sahin can return from a recurring injury, Weigl is the only man who can sit at the foot of Dortmund’s midfield and do what Tuchel demands of a player in that position.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

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It seems a little bizarre to be suggesting that Henrikh Mkhitaryan—a player who signed for the club for a record sum of €27.5 million—could be a key player for Dortmund this season yet such was the manner of the Armenian international’s demise last year under Jurgen Klopp.

Yet, like Schmelzer and a number of others in the squad, the attacking midfielder has quickly began to look like the player he once was when Dortmund initially signed him and now has no less than six goals and three assists in just four games for the Bundesliga side so far this season.

When on the top of his game, no player aside from Marco Reus comes close to the attacking midfielder in terms of talent and his ability to win games. A marquee player who can win games single-handedly when on form. If Tuchel can indeed get the best out of him, then he’ll surely be vital to Dortmund’s cause.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

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Nobody could really deny that Aubameyang’s goals are vital to Dortmund’s hopes and dreams this season. Sure, Reus could pick up some of the slack and at a push Mkhitaryan and Ilkay Gundogan would bag a few but nobody in this squad can really rack up the goal tally quite like this striker.

As much as that is something to be proud of, Tuchel will undoubtedly be well aware of the blind spot quickly developing in his tactics. Should Aubameyang pick up a long-term injury there’s really nobody in this team who could hope to replace him.

Adrian Ramos would give it a shot and maybe pick up a few goals in the league but there’s no denying that Dortmund need their Gabon striker every week if they are to challenge in the Bundesliga this season.