Borussia Dortmund's Main Squad Weakness Highlighted in 1860 Munich Defeat

Borussia Dortmund suffered a sobering 1-0 defeat to 1860 Munich on Saturday in their fourth friendly fixture of the preseason.

The result snapped a streak of BVB friendly victories over Erkenschwick, Wuppertal and, most recently, St. Pauli. But one of the most important purposes of preseason is learning about a team's chemistry and its strengths and weaknesses. And Dortmund could take a lesson from the defeat to 1860.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel didn't seem to find much wrong in the loss, asserting that workload was a culprit for his side's failure to score, per the club's official website:

"

We played St. Pauli on Thursday, then we played again on Saturday and in addition we had a few players who had suffered some knocks."

We could feel we suffered a lack of quality and strength. We still dominated the game, not everything was bad. But it just wasn't as fluent and fresh as when we played against St. Pauli. Still, everything is OK.

"

Tuchel had a point: Dortmund were probably a bit tired after having played so many games in just two weeks since resuming training. However, the selection of available players revealed the extent of how lacking Dortmund are in terms of strikers.

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Dortmund's collection of young talents:
Guerreiro (22)
Merino (20)
Dembele (19)
Mor (18)
Ginter (22)
Weigl (20)
Pulisic (17)
Passlack (18)

— Cristian Nyari (@CrisNyari) June 16, 2016"

In the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adrian Ramos, Dortmund were unable to field a natural striker against 1860. They played well with a false-nine strategy but were naturally missing a bit of class in front of goal. Ousmane Dembele had an early cross-cum-shot saved, and Gonzalo Castro's penalty was also saved by goalkeeper Jan Zimmermann. What was missing was a player with a bit more instinct for goal, one to put the ball into the net.

Curiously, Dortmund have not been linked with any strikers in recent memory. Instead, they've added enormous depth to their midfield, both in defensive and attacking areas. Wingers Dembele and Emre Mor have joined the club this summer, while Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Saturday confirmed to Sport1 that Dortmund are also in talks to sign Mario Gotze (h/t Stefan Coerts of Goal). 

Aditionally, Ingo Haspel, the agent of Andre Schurrle, recently told Sport Bild his client is keen to seal a move to Signal Iduna Park (h/t ESPN FC's Stefan Uersfeld). Thus, BVB could soon have enormous depth in attacking midfield, with Gotze, Schurrle and Marco Reus among the more established options and teenagers Dembele, Mor and Christian Pulisic as support.

The latter options are especially gratuitous for Dortmund, who will need depth but can hardly expect to give significant minutes to that trio of teenage starlets. Barring a spate of injuries or suspensions, there just aren't enough spots available for everyone.

TF-Images/Getty Images

Behind the attacking midfielders are new signings Mikel Merino, Sebastian Rode and Orel Mangala, whose additions have added depth following the sale of Ilkay Gundogan.

Dortmund didn't have enough room in their squad to play all their central midfielders last season, and with the aforementioned trio of newcomers joining Julian Weigl, Nuri Sahin, Gonzalo Castro, Moritz Leitner and Sven Bender among options for the central-midfield positions, Dortmund have more than enough depth.

As with the attacking midfielders, there's a good blend of experience and youth, with the latter provided by the 20-year-olds, Weigl and Merino.

Dortmund's striker depth is different, however. There is Aubameyang, whom the Ruhr side have been fortunate to have regularly fit in the last two seasons as he's developed from substitute winger to one of the best strikers in the world. He'll spend another season at Signal Iduna Park, but history has set a clear precedent; in all likelihood, he'll be sold within another year.

The only backup is Ramos, who is 30 years old and likely won't get any better with time.

If BVB are so keen on adding depth in young talent to their squad, perhaps a second or at least a third teenage attacking-midfield option wasn't the most important thing. Rather, maybe a rising striker talent would have been in order.

Dortmund offered Carlos Strandberg a five-year contract in 2014, per journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, but the deal never materialized. The Swedish striker would have been the right type of player, aged 18 and highly rated.

But after the Strandberg move failed, there was no follow-up with another target from the Ruhr side. Even when super talent Johannes Eggestein's contract at Werder Bremen was set to expire this summer, BVB were never seriously linked with a move for the 18-year-old, who penned a new deal with the Weserstadion side. He netted a hat-trick against Neuruppin Souveran on Saturday.

Dortmund have a great team with enormous depth in several positions, and they appear to be well positioned for the long term in many areas of the pitch. They have clearly learned from experience that it's important to always think ahead about the next star who might leave in order to make sure there is someone with world-class potential waiting to take over their role in the team.

They've done that all over the midfield, but as the 1860 defeat showed, they are lacking a bit of depth up top.

Dortmund would be wise to punctuate a busy transfer window with one final move—for a striker who might be ready to take over from Aubameyang in a year or two.

@Mr_Bundesliga