Why a Long Winter Break Will Hand Borussia Dortmund an Edge in Europa League

As the Bundesliga embarks on the month-long break in action Germans call "Winterpause," managers from clubs in other leagues look at teams like Borussia Dortmund with envy.

Germany's top tier is the only big European league that affords itself the luxury of that long a hiatus. Serie A has a short winter break of two-and-a-half weeks, Ligue 1 football is out of action for three. The Premier League and La Liga play throughout the winter—Spain's top flight doesn't play over Christmas weekend, but it has a midweek matchday between Christmas and the new year.

Former Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp, now at Liverpool, won't have a winter break for the first time this year, a fact he bemoaned after a UEFA Europa League meeting with Rubin Kazan, per Dominic King of the Daily Mail: "There are many games but the Europa League is not a problem for English teams. No. The Europa League is a great competition. No winter break might be the problem."

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Klopp: “Between the start and end of winter break in Bundesliga, Liverpool have 10 games. I don’t need to tell you what is easier!" (Echo)

— Reece (@ChalkonBoots) December 6, 2015"

While it's logical to think that the long winter break is a potentially decisive advantage for German teams, that hasn't manifested itself in results in the Europa League.

The last time a Bundesliga side reached the final of European football's lesser competition was in the 2008/09 season—back when it was still called UEFA Cup. Since then, only one team has made it as far as the semi-finals: Hamburger SV achieved that feat in the 2009/10 season.

Since none of the Bundesliga teams in the Europa League are as strong as Dortmund currently, however, it's worth taking a look at what advantages the winter break might have for the Black and Yellows' chances in Europe.

The first thing that comes to mind is rest. The Ruhr side have played 30 matches across all competitions between July 30 and December 19. The next fixture is scheduled for January 23, giving the players five weeks without a competitive game. 

Dortmund head coach Thomas Tuchel has sent his team home over the holidays, with the first training session in the new year scheduled for January 4. 

Boris Streubel/Getty Images

The rest these players get now is vital after a strenuous first half of the season. It helps prevent injuries, too.

Dortmund have been relatively lucky on the injury front under Tuchel. Per Fussballverletzungen.com, a blog dedicated to statistical analysis of injuries in the Bundesliga, BVB have had the sixth-least sick days in the "Hinrunde."

That statistic is somewhat skewed because two players, Erik Durm and Nuri Sahin, have yet to play this season. The German full-back and the Turkish central midfielder have only returned to team training from injuries late in the year.

That leads us to the second biggest advantage of the winter break: preparation time. German teams traditionally use the Winterpause to hold training camps. For the first time, Dortmund travel to Dubai this season—a decision we criticised earlier in December for human-rights reasons.

But there's no denying that the Dubai training camp could be a massive advantage for Dortmund this season. Durm and Sahin, two players who could play vital roles in 2016, will get the opportunity to ease back into rhythm. 

Tuchel will use the training camp to communicate his system further, especially to players who struggled with it—such as Adnan Januzaj—while also trying to eradicate some areas of concern the Hinrunde has brought to everyone's attention, like BVB's apparent weakness against counter-attacks.

PATRIK STOLLARZ/Getty Images

One concern that the winter break brings is that a team that was on a roll might find it hard to get things going again after a lengthy hiatus.

However, considering how tired Tuchel's players looked in the second half of the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Cologne in their final game of 2015, that seems unlikely to be a problem the 42-year-old worries about.

In conclusion, it's not a stretch to say the winter break will hand Dortmund an edge in Europe. The Black and Yellows are still the odds-on favourites to lift the trophy in Basel come May 18, according to Oddschecker.com, but their unnecessary hiccups in the group stage have seen them drawn with one of the strongest opponents left, FC Porto. 

Dortmund will have to use the winter break well to beat the Portuguese giants, whose league only takes a one-week hiatus over Christmas.

Lars Pollmann is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.