How Thomas Tuchel's Smart Rotation Has Kept Borussia Dortmund in Trophy Hunt

There's a general consensus among Bundesliga teams that a long UEFA Europa League campaign does more harm than good. You don't earn a whole lot of money in Europe's lesser competition, but a gruesome schedule awaits those teams that make it far enough.

Now, Borussia Dortmund are not your regular Europa League side—their participation is only the result of one forgettable season—but it's still impressive that the Black and Yellows seem to brush off the strain of a seemingly endless run of midweek fixtures with ease.

There are obviously a number of factors playing a part in this—the more economic playing style under Thomas Tuchel, for starters.

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The first-year head coach has implemented a philosophy that focuses much more on ball retention and positional play than his predecessor Jurgen Klopp's "heavy-metal football" that, for all the amazing success it brought Dortmund in the middle of the charismatic 48-year-old's tenure, seemed to wear out the Black and Yellows' own players as much or more than the opposing ones.

When referee Nicola Rizzoli gives the signal for kick-off in Thursday's return leg of the Europa League tie with Tottenham Hotspur, it'll be the 44th match of Dortmund's season.

That's more than a full campaign for all but a handful of clubs in the Bundesliga and only one fewer than Spurs—despite the fact that German football goes into hibernation each winter.

It'd be understandable if the team's performances suffered from the busy schedule but quite the opposite is the case: Dortmund, it seems, are getting better and better.

Their form since the turn of the year is astounding. Winning all but two of their 13 matches across competitions, the Ruhr side have kept 10 clean sheets and are right in the thick of two trophy hunts.

The league may well be out of reach, even though Dortmund cut their deficit to table-toppers Bayern Munich to five points in the process, but they're very much in play for both the Europa League and the DFB-Pokal.

Tuchel himself has taken pride in his team's performances in recent weeks:

More than anything else, his smart rotation has kept Dortmund on top of things during this brutal stretch on their schedule. Fifteen players have played in at least 26 matches this season, per Transfermarkt.co.uk, and that doesn't account for players such as Erik Durm and Nuri Sahin, who only returned to the team from lengthy injury absences for the second half of the season.

There are, of course, some players who are virtually undroppable, namely Julian Weigl (41 appearances), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (41), Mats Hummels (40) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (39), but even they've gotten a breather here and there.

When Weigl, for example, was going through a bit of a rough patch early in 2016, Matthias Ginter was right there to take some of the burden in defensive midfield. Weigl's impressive performance in the 3-0 win over Spurs showed that he's overcome this flatness.

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Sahin, meanwhile, has yet to be unleashed after going 355 days without a game until February. Tuchel is very cautious with the Turkey international; Sahin could play a huge role later in the season. The midfielder told Deutsche Welle's Davis Van Opdorp on the subject of rotation:

"

If you watch us play, you can see everyone wants to play and everyone is sharp. Even every three days we play now, it's unbelievable. We have the Europa League, the German league, and the cup also, but our goal is to be there until the end. We want to be in every tournament, so we need this. Everyone is sharp to play, and it is ok. We need this, and that is why we play football.

"

It's this mindset that everyone at the club seems to share that could make this already-memorable season a very special one.

As always, a lot of the credit has to go to the players, whose determination and professionalism in every game is admirable, but it wouldn't be possible without a coach who enables them.

Tuchel has done a lot of things right in his first season at Signal Iduna Park, and his smart management of the team is right up there.

It could lead the club to its first major trophy since 2012.

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