Thomas Tuchel Must Build on Fine First Season to Take Borussia Dortmund Forward

Thomas Tuchel's first season in charge of Borussia Dortmund was one for the ages, all things considered.

Coming off a wholeheartedly disappointing campaign under Jurgen Klopp in which they finished seventh in the Bundesliga, the club underwent the first coaching change in seven years—an eternity in modern football.

Although appointing the 42-year-old former Mainz 05 coach as Klopp's replacement was largely accepted as a no-brainer, there still was some scepticism as to how he'd do at a bigger club and, more importantly, how long it would take him to right the ship.

By and large, Tuchel passed that test with flying colours. Dortmund ended the season setting a record for the best second-placed team of all time with 78 points, only one win away from tying the club-record 81 points of Klopp's second championship season in 2011/12—a mark they likely would've met had they had anything to play for in the last weeks of the season.

It was a trophyless season, of course, because Bayern Munich were even better in the league and in the DFB-Pokal final in May, but that couldn't take anything away from one of the finest coaching jobs in recent memory. As Stefan Buczko noted for ESPN FC, Dortmund's 78 points would have been enough to win the title "46 out of 53 times."

Tuchel quickly made the team his own, branding a unique playing style that made them one of the most entertaining sides in European football. Where Klopp ultimately failed to adjust his teams to new circumstances winning the league brings with it, Tuchel thrived.

His predecessor "was not able to introduce a stable, more possession-orientated style that was required against deep-sitting Bundesliga sides," tactics blogger Constantin Eckner wrote for Yellowwallpod.com.

Tuchel turned that weakness into a strength, his team dominating almost every opponent, suffocating defensive blocks and cutting them open with surgical precision many times. 

The evolution during the campaign was also a positive sign. There was a maturation of sorts as they grew in their system, illustrated by the fact that the Black and Yellows conceded only 11 league goals in the second half of the season after allowing 23 in the first 17 matches. They still punished opponents regularly, scoring a club-record 82 goals.

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A remarkable consistency distinguished Tuchel's first year in charge. Outliers such as the 5-1 defeat in Bayern's Allianz Arena and the rollercoaster ride that was the 4-3 loss away to Liverpool in the UEFA Europa League cost them dearly, of course, but they were just that, outliers.

It stands to reason that the Ruhr side could've mounted even more of a title challenge in the Bundesliga this season had the team stayed together.

Dortmund would've had a leg up on Bayern in terms of stability, seeing as the Bavarians are undergoing a coaching change from Pep Guardiola to Carlo Ancelotti. The charismatic Italian is a fantastic coach in his own right but far more conservative than the Catalan, and it remains to be seen how his team reacts.

Ancelotti's domestic record, meanwhile, is anything but fantastic, as Miguel Delaney detailed for ESPN FC: "Despite spending 18 consecutive years at the continent's wealthiest clubs, Ancelotti only has three domestic medals." 

Seeing as Bayern are so far ahead of everyone else in Germany, that record probably is nothing more than a somewhat surprising footnote, but Dortmund could have been strong enough to take advantage of the coaching change.

However, the Black and Yellows lived through more change than the Bavarians this summer, with key players Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan seeking greener pastures in Munich and Manchester.

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"We tried everything we could to keep them," Tuchel said in a press conference earlier in July. "These are more than three usual departures. They were special players, the pillars of the team."

It's almost a cruel irony that the 42-year-old lost three of his best performers after the season Dortmund had, especially considering no one left after Klopp's final campaign. Life as a coach can be a bitch.

Tuchel is an expert in rebuilding his teams after seeing his best players at Mainz leave year after year, but the circumstances are not comparable at all.

With the Zerofivers, expectations weren't high. Keeping the club away from the danger zone was a success and playing entertaining football a bonus. Tuchel masterfully guided his teams through those regular upheavals, enhancing his profile and reputation as one of the best young coaches in the game.

It's a different ballgame with Dortmund. The club has become too big to be happy with a pretty good season. Supporters demand good football on top of good results. Qualification for the UEFA Champions League is the minimal target.

These high expectations, only fuelled by the club's fine first season under Tuchel, put the head coach in an awkward position, because the parameters have changed so much with the departures of the team captain, midfield mastermind and attacking genius.

Coming close to the 78 points they won last season would arguably be a success, but, at some point, Dortmund will have to win some silverware again.

However, asking that of Tuchel after the summer the club had to this point would be akin to asking a builder to add a second storey to a house after the mainstay collapsed.

Perhaps it'd be best for everyone involved to not focus on the results so much and, to stay in the figure of speech, highlight the foundation instead.

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Dortmund's playing style could transcend personnel. They'll still be able to dominate most opponents with Marc Bartra playing passes from the back instead of Hummels and with Ousmane Dembele running rings around defenders instead of Mkhitaryan.

They won't, however, be able to hang with Bayern and will presumably have to fight a strong Bayer Leverkusen side that is "positioned better than ever to break the recent duopoly at the top of the table," as Ross Dunbar put it for Fox Sports.

In many ways, this season could turn out to be one people thought Dortmund would have when Tuchel first took over: a year of transition. A season that is about finding their feet amid rather radical, involuntary change.

"A lot of things happened," the 42-year-old said in his first press conference of this pre-season. "Some say it's an upheaval, and maybe it even feels like a new beginning."

Unlike most new beginnings, however, Dortmund's starts on a more-than-solid foundation. Tuchel knows the club and a large portion of players know exactly what their coach wants to see on the pitch, be it in training or in matches.

Despite the mass exodus of star players, the squad still contains enormously talented individuals, including six new arrivals Tuchel helped to hand-pick. The job is now to form a cohesive unit.

Throughout his career, Dortmund's boss has showed he's able to handle changes, and, if nothing else, last season proved he's the right man at the right time for the Black and Yellows.

Lars Pollmann also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.