Mats Hummels Is Borussia Dortmund Player Who Must Produce After Internationals

Borussia Dortmund are without a win in four competitive matches after a run of 11 successive wins to start the season, leaving the positive atmosphere around the club in peril.

It's up to the entire squad to regain the form shown during that record-breaking start, with the onus on a few players in particular to produce after the October international break.

Goalkeeper Roman Burki is one of them. The Switzerland international has conceded 11 goals in eight Bundesliga games, and, against newly promoted Darmstadt, the only two shots on target found their way into his net.

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In the 5-1 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich, Burki looked awkward leaving his line for two of Bayern's goals. The 24-year-old was clearly at fault for the Bavarians' third strike seconds after half-time, which effectively killed the game.

Burki's spot in the starting lineup doesn't look to be in jeopardy, though, with Roman Weidenfeller struggling for form in the Europa League qualifiers. The Swiss must, however, improve his form if he wants to keep his place.

The player who faces the most pressure after the international break, however, is Mats Hummels. 

The Dortmund captain made himself vulnerable to his critics with a few ill-advised statements after recent games, although he has since denied criticising his team-mates, per Joe Wright of Goal.com.

While it's certainly the prerogative of the man who wears the captain's armband to question the team's performances, the 26-year-old has a penchant for making it sound like he's excluding himself. 

Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has made his dislike of Hummels' way of communicating through the media known, as ESPN writer Stefan Buczko tweeted.

Hummels' problems don't solely lie off the pitch, though.

On the pitch, he is clearly Thomas Tuchel's No. 1 centre-back—Hummels has played every second of every game apart from the Europa League match at PAOK Salonika. He has, however, suffered a performance dip lately. 

Against Bayern, he and centre-back partner Sven Bender were too slow to react to long balls from Jerome Boateng twice, allowing Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski to score on both occasions.

The same happened to Hummels on international duty with Germany in Dublin on Thursday. He allowed Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long to run by him when a simple long ball from goalkeeper Darren Randolph flew over his head. This time, Hummels was critical of himself.

He told German broadcaster RTL that he reacted half a second too late. Boateng, his partner in central defence on Thursday, called it a schoolboy error from the entire team (via ruhrnachrichten.de, in German).

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German magazine Kicker rated (in German) Hummels as the worst player on the pitch, grading his performance at five—that's in German school grades, however. It translates to a two-out-of-10 rating. Kicker lamented countless lacks of concentration and gave him the lion's share of fault for Ireland's winner.

Hummels admitted the past season was "the worst I ever played" in an interview with German magazine Kicker (via Deutsche Welle) in the summer and said he feels quicker now. If these last few games are any indication, though, speed is still a big problem for Hummels. 

Dortmund's next opponents will surely have noted Hummels' susceptibilities, as they give them an easy blueprint to test the skipper.

The defender must prove he can handle it when the opposition tries to bridge midfield and defence, even if it may force him to position himself more conservatively. Hummels is too intelligent to allow himself to be taken out of the game so easily.

After inviting controversy, the pressure is on Hummels to let his play do the talking.