Sokratis Papastathopoulos Is Borussia Dortmund's Player of the Season So Far
If there is a positive in losing an influential leader, it is that it allows others to step up and take on more responsibilities.
Mats Hummels was such a leader for Borussia Dortmund, the team captain was more than just a world-class centre-back. He was the team's mouthpiece, nicknamed "class representative" in the early days of his career at the Westfalenstadion, when he was part of a young team making headway in the Bundesliga under Jurgen Klopp.
The captain's armband went to left-back Marcel Schmelzer, who has developed into a leader himself, but there is no question who commands Dortmund's back line. Sokratis Papastathopoulos has taken on that role and ran with it. The 28-year-old is the team's most consistent performer this season.
It is only fitting that fans, players and even the staff call him "Papa," German for "dad," due to his tongue-twisting last name. Like a good dad, Sokratis has taken the other centre-backs under his wing this season.
Instead of getting in an experienced replacement for Hummels on the transfer market—though not for a lack of trying, as they were after Bayer Leverkusen's Omer Toprak, who himself was keen on the move, per local paper Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German)—the Black and Yellows opted to sign Marc Bartra from FC Barcelona for a bargain €8 million.
The 25-year-old comes with the pedigree of having learned his trade at La Masia and having previously played for Pep Guardiola, a coach Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel looks up to. But Bartra has played so little for the Blaugrana over the years that he cannot be expected to be a player others can look up to, not least because of the language barrier.
Matthias Ginter has also been thrust into a regular role in the heart of defence due to the long-term injury of Sven Bender, who has yet to make his season debut after picking up a foot injury on international duty with Germany at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Ginter has played surprisingly well at centre-back in his first extended run at the position since his move to the Westfalenstadion in 2014, but the 22-year-old is not only relatively inexperienced, he is also a quiet character by nature.
Sokratis is also a man of few words off the pitch, but he turns into a different person once he steps onto the playing surface. He displays positive body language, encourages his team-mates, arbitrates when there are disputes between players from both sides and animates his side from the back.
A deputy captain who has worn the armband in six games this season with Schmelzer injured or rested, the Greek's development comes as a bit of a surprise.
In Tuchel's first season in charge of the Ruhr side, he converted midfielder Bender to centre-back, with the German seemingly overtaking Sokratis on the depth chart. His lack of ball-playing ability from the back line made him a less-than-stellar fit for the 43-year-old's possession-orientated playing style, in which the centre-backs are buildup players as much as defenders.
Sokratis found himself on the bench in some crucial games, be it the first leg of the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals against Liverpool or the DFB-Pokal semi-final at Hertha BSC.
He and Hummels never quite clicked as a centre-back pairing during their three seasons together. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner always looked better alongside his long-time partner Neven Subotic or, last season, next to Bender.
Both Hummels and Sokratis prefer to be proactive defenders, often leaving their post to anticipate balls higher up the pitch, which left Dortmund vulnerable when they lost the duel or missed a ball.
This season, the Greece international's positioning has improved dramatically, as he seems to have taken well to Tuchel's coaching in the summer. The 27-year-old is able to put out fires before they develop in Dortmund's defensive third, which will show up in the goals-conceded column before long.
The team's stats with and without him perfectly illustrate just how important he has become this season: In the 1.461 minutes he has played, per Transfermarkt, Dortmund have conceded 10 goals. In the 279 minutes he has missed, Dortmund allowed nine goals (he missed three games through injury or for rest and was taken off with a knock against Hamburger SV).
| With Sokratis | Without Sokratis | |
| Games | 16 | 3 |
| Wins | 11 | 1 |
| Clean sheets | 5 | 0 |
| Goals conceded/game | 0.69 | 2.67 |
It is no coincidence that the team looked their worst defensively against Ingolstadt, a game he missed with muscle problems, and Legia Warsaw in midweek, when Sokratis was given a rest. Even though he is not necessarily a player with the strategic mind to organise a defence by himself, his mere presence makes a huge difference.
Just ask Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, who spent most of the 90 minutes in Sokratis' pocket. He was able to overpower the imperious Pole to great effect, limiting him to a single shot on target, per WhoScored.com.
It was no stretch to call the Greece international Dortmund's match-winner, as he received the joint-highest rating with a grade that translated to eight out of 10 from BVB reporter Matthias Dersch for local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (in German).
Per ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko, Sokratis was also the best player on the pitch in the Revierderby against Schalke 04 earlier in November. Buczko noted "Sokratis is the kind of defender any coach would want to have in a derby."
His mentality and spirit make him a big-game specialist, as was evident in the cup-final defeat against Bayern in May, when he became a tragic hero after putting in an excellent performance but missing a penalty in the shootout. The fact that he stepped up to the plate when others would not, despite his lacking technique, tells fans all they need to know about Sokratis.
He even made strides in the buildup phase, completing 90 per cent of his passes in the Bundesliga this season, per Squawka.com, trailing only Felix Passlack and Julian Weigl in that regard.
Of course, his most regularly played pass is a simple ball to his centre-back partner, be it Bartra or Ginter, who are both more adept at playing vertically. That said, he is also more accurate with his own long passes, per WhoScored, completing a solid 60 per cent of his long balls in the Bundesliga this season, compared to only 43 per cent in the last campaign.
His core competence is still battling with strikers, of course, and he does it as well as ever, winning 68.4 per cent of his duels, per a tweet from stat provider Opta, while committing only 1.2 fouls per game, per WhoScored.
Once known as a bit of a loose cannon on the pitch, Sokratis has matured into one of the most solid and dependable defenders in the Bundesliga.
He has become irreplaceable for Dortmund both as a defensive stalwart and as a leader, putting together the strongest season of his career at the Westfalenstadion to this point.
Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.
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