Borussia Dortmund Are Stuttering in Bundesliga Despite Win over Hannover

Borussia Dortmund picked up their third win in four Bundesliga games since the winter break on Saturday, beating last-placed Hannover 96 1-0 at Signal Iduna Park.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the winner with a thunderous strike from range, the Black and Yellows' first league goal from outside the penalty box all season.

That it took such a highlight to beat completely toothless visitors, however, was telling.

Football writer Marcus Bark called it Dortmund's worst home game of the season so far, and it's hard to argue with that assessment.

The biggest competitor for that undesirable distinction is probably the previous match in front of more than 80,000 spectators in the Westfalenstadion, a lucky 2-0 win over promoted side FC Ingolstadt on January 30.

Add in a snoozefest of a goalless draw against Hertha BSC in between the two home matches, and Dortmund are suddenly going through a veritable dip in performance.

That dip has so far covered only the Bundesliga, though. An impressive 3-1 victory over in-form VfB Stuttgart saw the Black and Yellows advance in the DFB-Pokal in midweek.

It's obviously not like Dortmund's lack of fireworks has harmed them in the league to this point. They are unbeaten after the winter break, after all, and a goalless draw away against third-placed Hertha is nothing to be ashamed of.

Still, the performance against Hannover on Saturday wasn't the best preparation for a tough UEFA Europa League match against FC Porto on Thursday. The Portuguese giants come off an impressive 2-1 victory over Benfica in Estadio da Luz and won't be scared of anything when studying the video from Dortmund's game against Hannover.

Of course, there are two mitigating circumstances—or at least potentially mitigating ones.

The Porto match itself is one of them. It's only logical some players thought ahead to the arguably much more important game on Thursday considering the opponent they played in the 96ers. It looked like that last bit of sharpness was missing from the Black and Yellows' display.

Maybe things would've been much different and Dortmund would've won the game in more impressive fashion had Marco Reus scored in the ninth or 15th minutes. First, Ron-Robert Zieler saved his attempt from point-blank range, then the crossbar saved Hannover and denied Reus Dortmund's first goal from a direct free-kick since the last matchday of the 2013/14 season.

The second circumstance that obviously shaped the game was the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who missed the match after picking up a knock to his calf in the cup tie at Stuttgart.

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Meanwhile on the stand pic.twitter.com/lp7nGC8Cj6 (via @SkySportNewsHD)

— Yellowwallpod (@Yellowwallpod) February 13, 2016"

Reus led the line in place of the Gabonese and did relatively well, but the whole team suffered from his absence nonetheless. Had he been available, Henrikh Mkhitaryan could've played a more central role in midfield again, where he would've most likely taken up Shinji Kagawa's spot.

The Japanese's dip in form continued despite getting to play the full 90 minutes for only the second time since early November. Head coach Thomas Tuchel told German broadcaster Sky before the game he and his staff are especially tough on the Japan international because they know about his potential, but Dortmund's No. 23 again didn't come close to fulfilling it against the 96ers.

ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko graded him as the worst player from the Black and Yellows, with a rating of 4/10. Jurgen Koers from local paper Ruhr Nachrichten took the same line, with a grade that translates to a rating of 3/10.

PATRIK STOLLARZ/Getty Images

Kagawa's struggles in the game were somewhat emblematic for his entire team. He was sluggish in possession, lost the ball far too often and overall lacked precision and directness.

Tuchel lamented his team's inaccuracies in his press conference after the game, per Ruhr Nachrichten on Twitter, saying the game was tough because imprecision snuck in after 15 or 20 minutes.

The less-than-pristine field conditions at this time of the year—both poor home games were played during showers of rain to boot—didn't help, but that's hardly an excuse.

Dortmund will have to improve if they want to mount a challenge in the Europa League, with the round-of-32 tie against Porto right around the corner.

At least they can rely on a much-improved defence, as they've conceded only two goals in 2016. That might have something to do with the fact they played against the worst and second-worst Bundesliga attacks in Ingolstadt and Hannover respectively, but it is still nothing to scoff at.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.