One Player Dortmund Will Regret Not Signing in 2015 Summer Transfer Window

Borussia Dortmund have had a very impressive summer transfer window. Not only has new manager Thomas Tuchel brought in the talents that he wanted, but he has also sold or loaned out fringe players who would have otherwise sat on the bench.

As the Westfalenstadion side sit top of the Bundesliga table, with a welcoming and far from challenging Europa League group stage to look forward to, there's very little fans of the club can look back on over the past few months and grumble about. Right?

Well, sort of. Dortmund did bring in a number of smart signings to plug notable holes in the side. Roman Burki's arrival looks like a genius move between the posts, while Julian Weigl has quickly come into midfield and revolutionised the way Tuchel's side play with the ball at their feet. Add to that the arrival of Gonzalo Castro from Bayer Leverkusen and you have three very smart signings to add to the squad. 

Yet some things were neglected. 

For example, Dortmund did very little to reinforce a defensive line that has looked close to crumbling in recent seasons. The squad still relies upon Mats Hummels from one week to the next, while Neven Subotic and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are expected to take turns keeping him company.

Similarly, despite the arrival of left-back Joo-Ho Park from Mainz, Tuchel has done very little to deal with a full-back problem on both flanks that often brought Jurgen Klopp's side to its knees. 

Of course, in a seemingly typical move from the new manager, it appears the back line has been revitalised. Former struggling talents like Marcel Schmelzer and, indeed, Hummels have arrived back on the scene as though they were new players.

Despite the lack of investment, it seems Tuchel's coaching has paved over the cracks in this back line, for now.

Perhaps the real problem that could truly derail this optimistic black-and-yellow vibe is the lack of firepower that sits on Tuchel's bench. That problem could have been solved with the signing of Andriy Yarmolenko from Dynamo Kyiv. 

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In last weekend's clash with Hertha Berlin, the new manager turned to Adrian Ramos—a striker who has scored seven goals in 33 games—from the bench, and he duly scored a goal in the last minute. The strike added some gloss to the eventual 3-1 scoreline, but it was no more than a consolation for his ailing form since arriving at the club.

Yet buried beneath the celebrations with what seemed like the entire team and coaching staff was a genuine look of relief. Ramos and Tuchel both know that he still doesn't come anywhere near to being a proper back-up striker to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. 

This is where the previously mentioned spring cleaning of Dortmund's reserves may indeed come back to bite Tuchel further down the line.

Not only has he failed to sign a proper striker to help Aubameyang, but he has also allowed Kevin Kampl, Kevin Grosskreutz and Jakub Blaszczykowski—three attacking, goalscoring midfielders—to leave the club, while only bringing in a lightweight, unproven talent in Adnan Januzaj from Manchester United.

When we then turn to the realm of "What if?", there are very few possibilities to consider. Tuchel may not have signed any forwards or attacking midfielders this summer, but then again, Dortmund simply weren't linked with many either.

If you were to pick up a newspaper in England or Germany on any given day throughout the window this summer, it would have more than likely contained a transfer story regarding players leaving the former German champions rather than joining them. 

Alas, the only player of note who could have been signed and possibly arrived as a solution to this problem was Yarmolenko—a Ukrainian attacking midfielder who has been scoring goals for fun throughout his career. 

The transfer story was one that rumbled on throughout the summer months—the latest of which coming from Bild (h/t Joe Short of the Daily Express) on August 30, which detailed a £8.7m bid for the midfielder—but it was a potential target that would have made perfect sense. 

Dortmund already have attacking midfielders who can score for fun in Marco Reus, Shinji Kagawa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but no fan of the club has to be told how quickly the former of those three can pick up an injury (his latest coming on international duty) and how rarely the former two can keep their form going throughout the entire season. 

Beyond these three, Tuchel will have to then turn to Januzaj, Castro and Jonas Hofmann. The former Bayer star has genuine pedigree, yet the other two offer immense promise but are clearly not quite ready to take on the role of a goalscoring midfielder in a side hoping to challenge for major honours. 

In truth, Tuchel has risked everything to trim down his squad. A move that may bring harmony to his side and offer far more cohesion between the starting XI, but once you scratch away at that front line, things begin to look very exposed.

Dortmund could have used a signing like Yarmolenko, if only to help them sleep at night. 

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