Borussia Dortmund's Underwhelming Performance vs. Sunderland No Cause for Alarm

On the surface, friendly matches that end in a 1-1 draw with AFC Sunderland don't exactly make the hearts of fans leap for joy.

Borussia Dortmund's penultimate test ahead of their first competitive game of the 2016/17 season, the German Supercup against champions Bayern Munich on August 14, however, offered quite a few things onlookers will have gladly registered.

For starters, it was the first opportunity to see three new arrivals who had enjoyed a prolonged vacation following Euro 2016. The return of Mario Gotze and the debuts in black and yellow for Raphael Guerreiro and Andre Schurrle naturally took centre stage on Friday, even though they only came off the bench for a 23-minute cameo.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel finally has all of the club's eight new signings of the busy summer transfer period available, and Friday's match, if nothing else, proved it's going to take a lot of work to get the entire team on the same page.

After such a big change—Dortmund have made 12 first-team transfers in total at this point—it's only logical that performances in friendlies lack a bit of cohesion.

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The Ruhr side still were dominant throughout the 90 minutes, but as Boris Rupert noted on the club's official website, they looked too tired to create many clear-cut scoring opportunities "after four intensive training sessions in the previous 48 hours in Bad Ragaz" in Switzerland.

It's no coincidence that Dortmund's only goal came from a hopeful attempt from distance, with Nuri Sahin connecting well with a ball Sunderland's Lamine Kone had failed to clear after Ousmane Dembele played in a cross after 17 minutes.

And seeing as the Black Cats were without the injured Jermain Defoe, it's no coincidence, either, that Dortmund conceded off a set piece, with Kone getting his head to a free-kick cross ahead of striker Adrian Ramos in the 66th minute.

The Black and Yellows had one big chance to win the match, with Schurrle releasing fellow substitute Emre Mor with a delightful through ball, but the 19-year-old failed to find the net after rounding goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

As ever in pre-season, however, performance trumps result, and there were a number of positive showings to take note of.

Marc Bartra, for one, again displayed an encouraging level of comfort in new surroundings, defending in a relaxed but purposeful way and playing a few silky passes through Sunderland's defensive lines.

It has to be said, though, that the Catalan tried to be too direct at times, often playing long balls towards the final third with little accuracy. Dirk Krampe of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (link in German) relayed that Tuchel tried to calm down his defender from the touchline throughout the first half.

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Goalscorer Sahin was arguably the best player on the pitch and could often be seen (and heard) communicating with his team-mates. The Turkey international is already in much better shape than at any point in the previous season, when he only returned from a lengthy injury in February.

He and Sebastian Rode, who had an up-and-down match with quite a few sloppy passes, could well start in central midfield against Bayern, a game that could come too early for Weigl and will likely require more defensive prowess than Gonzalo Castro has to offer.

Tuchel opted for five-man defences against the Bavarians in the last two meetings in the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal final in May, but Dortmund haven't spent much, if any time, in that formation in pre-season so far.

They did play with a hybrid back line after the final round of substitutions on Friday, however. Defensively, it was a normal four-man line with Piszczek at right-back, under-19 midfielder Dzenis Burnic and Mikel Merino in the middle and Euro 2016 winner Guerreiro on the left side.

Once they won the ball, though, Merino moved to the left wing, with the Portuguese playing in a position in central midfield. Dortmund's widely spread defensive alignment only worked because of Sunderland's harmlessness, of course, but it's always good to see a new tactical wrinkle in otherwise somewhat boring pre-season matches.

Guerreiro was quite active in his role, as the video below shows:

The former FC Lorient player impressed at the Euros as a creative full-back, displaying a good passing range and an ability to deliver dangerous crosses, be it from open play or from dead-ball situations.

With Dortmund having an established left-back in Marcel Schmelzer, however, the best way to utilise the 22-year-old summer signing might not be on the outside. Having both on the pitch at the same time would allow for tactical unpredictability, and in that regard, Guerreiro's debut was encouraging.

The Black and Yellows had their best spell of the game in those final 23 minutes, thanks to the Portugal international and Weigl in central midfield but also Gotze and Schurrle.

The club's two most expensive signings of the transfer window played next to each other in a four-man line behind striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and often combined, usually with Gotze releasing his compatriot on the left wing.

Schurrle's directness was on display right from the get-go, as he often went close to the goal line in an attempt to find a lane for cutback passes. The end product wasn't there just yet, as to be expected after only joining his new team-mates earlier in the week and given the Black Cats ultra-defensive setup in the final minutes of the game.

As for Gotze, the 24-year-old displayed his superb technical abilities with a few great touches but otherwise had a somewhat understated game in his return to his boyhood club.

The midfielder is yet to face the independent media following his move from Bayern but told the club TV BVB-Total that "the most important thing is that I remain healthy, fit and able to play."

He looks a few pounds off his ideal weight, and it's likely going to take a while until he's the Gotze Dortmund fans know from his first stint with the club, but even in a 23-minute cameo, he showed glimpses of the brilliant footballer they once loved.

Overall, though, Gotze, much like the entire team, lacked freshness against Sunderland.

After the match, Tuchel told Jochen Tittmar of Spox.com (link in German) that he had expected a better performance after strong training sessions and that the team has many steps yet to take. 

That, of course, is the nature of pre-season, and as Tuchel told Thomas Hennecke of sport magazine Kicker (link in German), a somewhat underwhelming friendly match has the positive effect of raising attention levels.

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