Borussia Dortmund Drop More Points in Revierderby but See Light at End of Tunnel

In a way, it is fitting that one of football's oldest cliches best describes the 149th edition of the Reviederby between arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 on Matchday 9 of the 2016/17 Bundesliga season on Saturday.

The goalless draw between the Black and Yellows and the Royal Blues was a classic "tale of two halves."

It is fitting because the derby can feel like an anachronism. The emotional charge of one game that can change an entire season for either of the two clubs does not fit these modern times, especially for Dortmund, who have bigger fish to fry—or at least hope to.

PATRIK STOLLARZ/Getty Images

The truth for now, however, is that Saturday's hosts have dropped points for the fourth game running in the Bundesliga, where they are now level on points with teams such as Eintracht Frankfurt and SC Freiburg—clubs that will be happy to avoid the drop at the end of the campaign.

Six points adrift from second-placed RB Leipzig and eight behind perennial league leaders Bayern Munich, it seems as though Dortmund will have to play catch-up the until the winter break, if not deep into the second half of the season.

With bogey team Hamburger SV, an international break and then the Bavarian giants on the schedule, the Ruhr side will have to hope they can keep the distance manageable. Competing for the title was always out of question given the wholesale changes Dortmund had to make in the summer, but anything other than a second-place finish should be considered failure.

In that regard, it was almost surprising when head coach Thomas Tuchel focused on the positives after the goalless draw with Schalke. "All in all," he said in his press conference, "we put in an enormous amount of effort and created two gilt-edged chances to score. I am very satisfied with the performance in the second period."

The 43-year-old was right in pointing out the improved showing of the second period, but not necessarily because it was so good in its own right. More than anything, Dortmund's first half was downright awful.

The Black and Yellows once again struggled to move the ball forward with any conviction, more often than not failing to beat Schalke's midfield line. The visitors came into the game with a clear plan: They wanted to outmuscle Dortmund defensively and play quick transition attacks.

Playing with three centre-backs in defence and another, Sead Kolasinac, at left-wing-back, Schalke physically dominated the game for the most part, while their quick counters tested the hosts' high line early and often, as Dortmund relied on last-ditch defending too often for comfort.

Tuchel's side seemed to have no plan to play around Schalke's compactness, as they went through the motions, almost looking flat. Their build-up play was painfully slow and suffered from a lack of creativity, as Yellowwallpod.com's Luca Gierl pointed out during the first 45 minutes:

"

BVB in build-up seem way too predictable. Götze and Kagawa open up space nobody moves into, nothing between the lines.

— Luca Gierl (@LucaGierl) October 29, 2016"

There were basically no links between the deeper parts of the pitch and Dortmund's attack. Per German broadcaster Sky, striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had only seven touches of the ball in the first half. That is not entirely out of the norm for the Gabon international, but it still speaks volumes about Dortmund's issues on the day.

"We had some real problems in the first period, making a lot of unforced errors and a lot of mistakes in our build-up play," Tuchel conceded after the match. "We brought some dangerous situations upon ourselves by passing the ball poorly and not occupying offensive spaces well enough."

Stat provider Opta offered a perfect illustration of Dortmund's abysmal first-half performance:

To Tuchel's and his team's credit, the Black and Yellows were much better in the second half. Mario Gotze came alive and managed to create important links in the left-half-space, from where Dortmund created most of their dangerous situations the rest of the way.

Left-back Felix Passlack, having played a number of terrible passes in the first half, moved inside a bit to open up his passing angles. A right-footed player, the 18-year-old struggles a bit on the wrong side but, overall, has impressed during his first full season with the senior team.

Dortmund picked up the pace, finally moving the ball with some intent. Chances, albeit only a few, came almost naturally. Left-winger Ousmane Dembele came closest, smashing the bar with a difficult close-range volley after 53 minutes.

They remained on the front foot without creating too much of substance until a crucial substitution, that, more than anything else, should give Dortmund fans hope for the coming matches. Raphael Guerreiro made his return after missing four matches with a muscle injury.

Even though the 22-year-old moved to left-back instead of his position in central midfield, from where the Portugal international had dominated earlier in the season, the added quickness and intelligence paired with sublime technical abilities from the left-back position opened up Dortmund's attack even more.

In the Euro 2016 winner, Dembele and Gotze, Dortmund now had three players on the left wing and in the half-space, and it was no surprise to see the best move of the game come from interplay on that side of the pitch:

Barely a minute later, Aubameyang got the ball past Ralf Fahrmann in Schalke's goal, only for Kolasinac to make a spectacular block against Christian Pulisic, who would have had but a tap-in for what could well have been a winner.

Andre Schurrle made his long-awaited comeback after missing nine matches with a knee injury—even though his absence was interrupted by a crucial 32-minute cameo in the UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid, where he scored a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw.

Although his coming on broke up the left-sided triangle with Gotze moving to the right-half-space for the wholeheartedly ineffective Shinji Kagawa, Dortmund received another jolt of energy with the directness of the 2014 FIFA World Cup winner on the left wing. Nothing would come of it, though.

The goalless draw was arguably the fair result even if Dortmund had the better chances. If truth be told, they did not deserve a win after not showing up for the first 45 minutes.

That said, the returns of Schurrle and especially Guerreiro bode well for the coming tasks. 

With Gotze slowly but steadily coming back into form—he has arguably been the team's best player in recent weeks but has yet to play well for more than 45 to 60 minutes—and the influential Guerreiro and the direct Schurrle making their way back, Dortmund should be able to pick up their performances.

Tuchel will not be forced to play too many youngsters at once, more carefully picking spots for them to be effective. Pulisic, for one, has fared better when he has had the chance to play against tired defenders, having been dominated physically in a number of his starts.

Even though Dortmund remain in a rut in terms of their results in the Bundesliga, the goalless draw with Schalke showed a light at the end of the tunnel. "We'll come out the other side," goalkeeper Roman Burki said after the match, per the club's official website.

Only time will tell whether that will be in time for Dortmund to meet their expectations this season.

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.