After their latest home defeat, Bayern Munich must rely on a slip-up from Borussia Dortmund on the last day of the league to secure yet another Bundesliga title. The Yellow and Blacks are just one win away from ending Bayern’s hold on the Bundesliga, which persisted for 10 long years. How did this come about, and why is it such a big deal for Dortmund to get one over their rivals?
These are some of the questions that we are going to answer in this article, make sure to check the LV BET Sports Blog for more about the Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A.
BAYERN MUNICH’S DOMINANCE
The Bundesliga has been a one-horse race for a long time, and on the occasion that Bayern Munich slip up or underperform, in comes Dortmund or RB Leipzig, who give it a go. In terms of capacity to buy and attract the biggest talent around, Bayern are insurmountable. Since they win the Bundesliga seemingly every season, they pocket the most amount of money (€76), and they tend to do well in the Champions League. This year, they only progressed to the quarter-finals as they got Manchester City, who are currently in the final. With that amount of money being flown into the club, investing in players and facilities keeps the club’s status at the top relatively easily.
The last time that Dortmund won the league was when Jurgen Klopp was in charge of Dortmund, and he managed to trouble the pecking order of the Bundesliga year after year, pushing them all the way to the Champions League final as well.
This begs the question, especially this year, if Dortmund wins the league title, is it down to Dortmund being better or Bayern Munich having an off-season and opening the door for others?
At times following the Bundesliga, Dortmund had very good chances to go to top of the league, but they failed to do so, but last weekend once again Bayern Munich lost from a winning position to tip the scales in favour of the Black and Yellows.
A season which saw a manager change mis-season for Bayern, something that they are not known to do, as normally they are a well-run club in general. The situation in the dressing room was reaching a boiling point under Julian Nagelsmann, with rumours about tactics being leaked and players not buying into the coach’s philosophy and tactical setup.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND: TITLE PUSH
After the 4-2 loss at the Allianz Arena, it looked like Dortmund are down and out of the race. A tough win against Union Berlin set them in motion but then a 3-3 draw against VFB Stuttgart stuttered their progress. A very good way to describe Borussia Dortmund’s season would be like a rollercoaster, from one week to another, ups and downs. Drawing away from home against Bochum, next week, hammering Wolfsburg 6-0.
As we discussed above, these minor hiccups along the way, normally would end their title charge, but since Bayern Munich had several hiccups along the way, they almost cancelled each other out.
In terms of tactical setup, Dortmund play a 4-1-4-1 system, with Emre Can normally dropping in between the centre-backs to offer more cover in transitions and giving the wing-backs licence to roam forward. Julian Brandt adopted his game, making him more dynamic and versatile, which was key to many good things. Should next weekend Borussia Dortmund be crowned Champions of Germany, Edin Terzic would be a very happy man that with the comparatively limited resources, he managed to topple the giants. A huge side note is that the team lost Erling Haaland to Man City last summer. Sebastian Haller has proven pivotal in recent weeks after his recovery from testicular cancer, being amongst the goalscorers and offering an aerial treat that his team lacked early on in the season.