1 Player Borussia Dortmund Should Be Looking at for 2016 January Transfer Window

There is an art to buying players in the modern game of football. Not only is talent a major factor, but the buyer must also consider the correct timing and the perceived situation of both parties. 

Some clubs are better than others in this regard. Bayern Munich, for example, tend to play the long game safe in the knowledge that, more often than not, the very best talent in Germany will turn their head towards.

Real Madrid play a similar game, only with the superstar of any given season. Germany and England can only harbour the very best talent for so long before the Spanish giants come calling. 

Most English Premier League sides are terrible at it. Tottenham, Chelsea and both Manchester sides rarely approach the transfer window with any discretion and usually pay through the nose for the talents they're after. Fortunately, with the money swirling around the top division at this moment in time, few of England's biggest clubs really care. 

Yet, when it comes to Borussia Dortmund, things aren't as simple. The Westfalenstadion side certainly have cash to burn—just as much as any club in Germany outside of Munich or Wolfsburg—but they have to be smart about the manner in which they approach their targets throughout the window. 

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Fortunately the new manager, Thomas Tuchel, has come in and, as well as revitalising the club on the pitch, he seems to have altered the manner in which Dortmund go about pursuing new players.

Rather than the scattergun approach undertaken during Jurgen Klopp's time at the club—i.e. buy a whole host of talents and hope one of them works out—Tuchel has singled out specific targets, and this summer saw the club routinely pick up key players, one after the other. 

Dortmund needed a goalkeeper so they signed Roman Burki; Tuchel wanted a holding midfielder so they signed Julian Weigl; Ilkay Gundogan needed cover so Bayer Leverkusen's Gonzalo Castro was signed. Each specifically sought out before the club made a move. 

It's this efficient approach to the transfer market that Dortmund will have to continue working with even whilst the window is shut. For although the next opportunity to sign players may be far off in January, the scouting and need to seek out new players started as soon as the new season began. 

As such, Tuchel and Dortmund's backroom staff will have to begin putting together their own theories and hypotheses as to just what kind of player they'll need to sign come January. Essentially, where will the squad need boosted with another signing?

The most notable area in this team that may be exposed come the halfway point in this current league and continental campaign is undoubtedly the forward line. Not only is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the only proven striker in the squad, but his partner in crime, Marco Reus, is always prone to the odd injury or two throughout the season.

It's with that in mind that Dortmund should undoubtedly begin putting together a shortlist of attacking midfielders or forwards who can create goals and score them just as easily on a regular basis. Either a prolific striker of a goalscoring midfielder would do the trick. 

Europe is full of such players. With the rise of the 4-2-3-1 formation over the past 10 years, we have seen the specialisation of a new type of player; an inside forward of sorts who can just as easily play on the wing and create goals as he can move inside and either play as a No. 10 or indeed as a striker. 

One such example of this is Ajax's 21-year-old talent Anwar El Ghazi. Having worked his way through the youth teams at Feyenoord, Sparta Rotterdam and then Ajax, the Dutch U21 star has quickly moved into Frank de Boer's first team and continues to shine as a genuine goalscoring talent. 

Last season, according to Transfermarkt, the winger hit nine goals and eight assists in 31 league games in a season that saw Ajax finish second in the Eredivisie. A tally that becomes all the more impressive when you consider he was playing for the club's youth team the season before. 

As is often the case, young talent at the Amsterdam club rarely goes unnoticed for too long. Not only is El Ghazi impressing fans at the Amsterdam Arena, but before long he'll have scouts from all over Europe reporting back to their clubs, urging them to make an approach. 

It's with this in mind that we return to Dortmund's current situation and the manner in which they hope to bring talent to the club. Come January, the whole of Europe may be well aware of El Ghazi's ability to score and assist in the final third—a talent that the German club could certainly use—but if Dortmund can set things in motion now, then they may be able to beat bigger clubs to the prize.

This young, Dutch talent may not bring about Dortmund's next title or guide the club to its next European Cup with a move in the January transfer window, but he represents opportunity and progress if the club can indeed continue working through one transfer window to the next with the same efficiency they've shown this season.