Borussia Dortmund's Unprecedented Squad Depth Could Become an Issue in 2016/17

Borussia Dortmund are nearly universally getting praised for their transfer business this summer. Rightfully so.

They've made the best of a difficult situation after losing three key players in team captain Mats Hummels, midfield metronome Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, arguably their best player in the last campaign. 

Signing a good mixture of exciting talents and proven Bundesliga quality, the Black and Yellows have welcomed a whopping eight new arrivals to their squad this offseason. The numbers say it all: Dortmund have tried to offset the loss of three stars by amassing a squad that has unprecedented depth.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel has a plethora of options in almost every position, with the Ruhr side's depth chart looking strong perhaps everywhere but at centre-back. 

That wealth of choices will be a strength for Dortmund this season, as the 42-year-old boss will be able to mix and match his starting XI to fit a specific game plan for every contest and rest players without too big a drop in performance.

Only four outfielders are likely going to be guaranteed starters: centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, right-back Lukasz Piszczek, central midfielder Julian Weigl and striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The other spots will be fair game, which will ideally lead to healthy competition.

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

However, that depth could also become an issue. There are 27 senior players in the squad, and that doesn't include youngsters Felix Passlack and Christian Pulisic, who were a part of the Bundesliga team for large parts of the second half of last season.

Even though some players may yet leave—Jakub Blaszczykowski, for example, could soon join Wolfsburg if Polish media are to be believed (h/t Krystian Wozniak of Reviersport).

And others won't play a big role in the coming months. Neven Subotic failed a medical at Middlesbrough and will miss the rest of the year after undergoing surgery for a rib injury, per the club's official website.

Still, it's not going to be the kind of compact squad Tuchel said he preferred in 2015, per Jurgen Koers of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten. To avoid the inevitable discontent among players who'd receive little playing time, it's better to have a compact group than a bloated squad, the coach reasoned.

Indeed, Dortmund ended up playing much of the season with a relatively small squad, only rotating in players such as Passlack, Pulisic or Moritz Leitner, who spent the first half of the season with the second team in the Regionalliga, in the latter stages of the campaign.

This season, Dortmund will not play as many matches as they did last year, when their season started with UEFA Europa League qualifiers in late July and they ended up playing a staggering 56 matches across all competitions.

Even if they were to reach both the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League finals in 2016/17, they would play a total of 54 matches—and the latter seems utterly utopian after a summer of upheaval.

Essentially, there will be fewer minutes to distribute among more players.

The victims of that simple fact could be the aforementioned youngsters, Passlack and Pulisic. They'll have a mountain to climb to receive significant playing time at the senior level and could be asked to play for the under-19 team on many weekends.

That's going to be a tough sell for the 17-year-old Pulisic especially. Here's someone who played 45 minutes in one of the biggest matches in recent history for the United States, in the Copa America Centenario semi-finals against Lionel Messi's Argentina in June. Now you're asking him to play against 16-year-olds from Arminia Bielefeld?

Tuchel, of course, has been asked about the new signings potentially blocking the development of the team's many exciting talents, saying in a recent press conference in Shanghai:

"

It's the best thing that can happen to young players when older, experienced players stand by their side. In stressful situations, but also in everyday life.

We have proved enough in the last years that we give young players a chance to develop. However, we also lost pillars and role models in the team construct with Mats, Ilkay and 'Miki.' We also have to replace those.

"

It's difficult to argue against the head coach after his terrific first year in charge of the club, and Dortmund generally have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the transfer market. Still, though, it's a situation that bears watching.

Not only the team's self-produced talents could find it tough to see the field. The same goes for a player such as Emre Mor, who only turned 19 on Sunday and has a number of more established players in front of him. Mikel Merino, a 20-year-old midfielder, could end up converting into a centre-back at Dortmund.

Even with a heavy rotation that can be expected this season, there'll be many cases of hardship among the team, even assuming a few players will be unavailable for any given match. There can only be 18 players in a matchday squad, which means several highly rated talents or seasoned professionals will find themselves watching from the stands or their couch every week.

This is part of the reason why one struggles to make sense of Dortmund's latest acquisition, Andre Schurrle.

The former Mainz 05, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea and Wolfsburg man became the club's record signing on Friday, costing €30 million, per ESPN FC's Stephan Uersfeld, only a day after the Black and Yellows announced the sensational return of Mario Gotze to his boyhood club.

Whereas the 24-year-old fills a clear need in Dortmund's creative department—he could replace either Gundogan or Mkhitaryan—Schurrle joins an already crowded depth chart on the wings, with Marco Reus, Ousmane Dembele, Mor and Pulisic the natural options, while players such as Aubameyang, Adrian Ramos and Gonzalo Castro have played there as well.

He could also play up front, but Aubameyang and Ramos are arguably the best one-two punch in the Bundesliga. Tuchel, who can be considered a mentor of sorts for Schurrle after developing him in Mainz's youth system and giving him his debut at the senior level, spoke glowingly about his protege upon his signing, as relayed by Dortmund-based football writer Stefan Buczko:

The 25-year-old is a presumptive starter, which would reflect his experience and the exorbitant fee but not necessarily his performances for either Wolfsburg or Chelsea. It'd have a trickle-down effect on players such as Dembele, Mor and Pulisic, especially once Reus is fully fit.

The latter's injury-proneness was probably a big factor in the decision to sign Schurrle in the first place, seeing as the club simply can't rely on Reus staying healthy for a full season. If he does, however, manage to play an entire campaign, it would, ironically enough, only complicate Tuchel's dilemma.

Dortmund's boss will have to live with the agony of choice, but there are many worse problems to have. 

Still, after proving his tactical acumen during his first season in charge, his man-management skills will be put to the test in 2016/17.

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