Andre Schurrle's Hot Borussia Dortmund Start Turning Doubters into Believers

Scepticism: If one word can be enough to describe the reaction of almost the entire Borussia Dortmund fanbase to the news that the club made Andre Schurrle their record signing for a reported fee of €30 million, that's the one.

The 25-year-old was the club's eighth and final arrival in the summer, and he almost seemed superfluous. The Ruhr side had already captured exciting youngsters Ousmane Dembele and Emre Mor on the attacking wings and wrapped up the homecoming of Mario Gotze as the new creative force in head coach Thomas Tuchel's attack.

Dortmund, it seemed, made up for the loss of Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Manchester United in numbers. The Armenian was arguably the best player during the 43-year-old's first campaign at the helm of the Black and Yellows, being involved in 55 goals, per Transfermarkt.

Shelling out €30 million on Schurrle, a player who hadn't done much in years, didn't feel like the best strategy. On the surface, the Germany international was an odd fit, seeing as his qualities mainly lie in counter-attacking, which Dortmund rarely get to do these days.

His technical and passing abilities wouldn't fit against the many deep-sitting opponents the club will face, many thought. Even Marco Reus, who has a similar set of skills but is simply a more talented player, didn't look great at times last season.

Only three games into the season, however, Schurrle has already silenced many sceptics. It's incredibly early in the campaign, but the start of the 25-year-old's Dortmund career couldn't have gone much better. It raises the question: Did we all underestimate him? 

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His strong start to the campaign excludes a substitute appearance in the DFL-Supercup, where he looked like an alien element in a team trying to force their way back into the game after going behind.

However, in the DFB-Pokal first-round tie with Regionalliga side Eintracht Trier and the opening match of Dortmund's Bundesliga campaign against Mainz 05, Schurrle was the club's best attacking player.

One way or another, the 2014 FIFA World Cup winner was involved in all five goals the Black and Yellows scored in those two games. Against fourth-division side Trier, he put one in the net himself, delivered a pre-assist for Shinji Kagawa's first goal and cleverly left the ball for the Japanese's second.

Against Mainz, he assisted Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first goal with a marvellous cross and later won a penalty with a determined run into the box. Considering the circumstances—temperatures on the pitch reached up to 45 degrees celsius—Schurrle's performance opened some eyes.

To go along with his involvement in the two goals, he played a total of six key passes, per WhoScored.com, with no other attacker managing more than one, and he added seven shots. Schurrle was the only reliable hub of creativity and danger in a somewhat undercooked Dortmund performance.

"Schurrle soaked up each and every moment in the bubbling cauldron with an almost childlike joy," German sport magazine Kicker wrote (h/t Archie Rhind-Tutt for The Set Pieces). 

That joy has been evident in the 25-year-old's every move since joining the club at the start of August following an extended post-Euro 2016 vacation. There's a spring in Schurrle's step, and he almost looks liberated.

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Following two disappointing stints at Chelsea and VfL Wolfsburg, it was no stretch to say his next move would go a long way to defining his career: Would he be a wasted talent, a what-if player? Or would he come good on the promise he showed in his early Bundesliga days at Mainz and Bayer Leverkusen?

It's no coincidence that Schurrle chose to reunite with Tuchel for that decisive career move. It was under his current boss that he developed at under-19 level and made his first steps in the German top flight. There is also an obvious connection that extends beyond a normal relationship between teacher and pupil.

"That I have the opportunity now to work again with him at this unbelievable great club—there's nothing better than this for me right now," Schurrle told Rhind-Tutt, saying they had kept in touch throughout his odyssey of the last few years. "He was sending me books. He was sending me some stuff about eating, about playing. All the time, even when I was in Chelsea, I had contact with him."

Long-time observers of the relationship between the 25-year-old and Tuchel aren't surprised that it delivered immediate returns.

Speaking to Benedikt Treuer of Spox.com (link in German), Volker Kersting, director of Mainz's academy, called the transfer a journey to the familiar for Schurrle, highlighting that he's a player who needs the unequivocal backing of a coaching staff to fully function on the pitch.

Schurrle wouldn't be the first player who only lives up to his potential under a specific coach; Dortmund had the same experience themselves with Kevin Kampl.

The Slovenia international broke through at RB Salzburg under Roger Schmidt and came to Dortmund carrying great hopes in the winter break of the 2014/15 season, when the club was in a relegation spot after an inexplicably terrible first half of the campaign under Jurgen Klopp.

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The 25-year-old never acclimated at the club, playing a total of 19 matches before leaving just seven months after his arrival for Leverkusen. There, he rejoined Schmidt and quickly turned into one of the Bundesliga's best central midfielders, making it into Kicker's (link in German) team of the 2015/16 season despite missing months with a fractured fibula.

It's too early to expect the same kind of impact from Schurrle, especially given Dortmund's depth in the attacking ranks. With Reus on his way back to the team after overcoming nagging abductor problems and Dembele proving his outstanding talent in bits and pieces, as well as Mor and Christian Pulisic demanding some playing time to show their development, he's not going to have a free ticket for the starting XI every week.

It stands to reason that he'll start the important matches, though, thanks to his vast international experience. He's played the third-most UEFA Champions League matches of all players on the team, per UEFA.com, and he has won an impressive 55 caps for Germany to this point.

Perhaps we'll also see Schurrle at the top of the formation, a position where back-up Adrian Ramos rests on unsound footing. With Aubameyang away on international duty in January—his Gabon side host the Africa Cup of Nations—the former Chelsea man could get a chance to prove his worth as a striker. 

With his experience and a head coach who knows exactly how to get the best out of him, Schurrle's signing may well prove to be a prudent piece of business for Dortmund.

If he continues his strong start, doubters will turn into believers at some point.

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