A worrying dip in form: BVB now risk squandering even this season’s achievements

The backlash against the boos—isolated and, from the fans’ perspective, entirely understandable—was not only unduly harsh (“that’s not on,” said managing director Carsten Cramer; “an outrage,” declared defender Waldemar Anton); it also overshadowed far more significant issues that deserved discussion that afternoon.

After all, Dortmund are now letting this season peter out rather badly.

True, BVB remain a very strong second-placed side: they have lost only twice in the league—to the soon-to-be champions Bayern Munich and, most recently, to Bayer Leverkusen, whom they had already beaten in the Cup. The football has rarely been a joy to watch, yet the results and, crucially, the much-vaunted mentality have delivered the goods. The loss to Bayer Leverkusen, who are chasing a Champions League spot, does nothing to change that. It is understandable, given the Bundesliga table has been set in stone for weeks—Bayern Munich are too far ahead, while RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart are safely behind—that the team is no longer fighting with every ounce of energy to avoid defeat.

Yet one big ‘but’ remains: the gradual drop in intensity is beginning to look worrying.

In Stuttgart last week, BVB appeared content with a goalless draw until deep into stoppage time; the team showed little appetite for victory. The最终2–0 win was solely down to the impact of substitutes Karim Adeyemi, Julian Brandt and Fabio Silva, who created and converted both goals respectively while pressing for more playing time. Their impact earned them starts against Leverkusen, and though Dortmund lost 1–0, Brandt was among their better performers.

Even the 3-2 comeback win over Hamburger SV before the international break, after falling 0-2 behind, owed more to Niko Kovac’s substitutes Ramy Bensebaini and Fabio Silva than to a collective improvement.

Against Leverkusen, Dortmund started brightly and enjoyed periods of control without carving out clear chances inside the box. After going behind to an unfortunate goal, however, there was no sign of a fightback in the second half—quite the opposite. The fact that both sets of fans fell silent because of a medical emergency in the stands seemed to affect the BVB players more than the earlier boos directed at Schlotterbeck, who, in fairness, had performed reasonably well. But that’s a side note.

“The German champions haven’t been decided yet,” Niko Kovac stated as recently as Thursday. Mathematically, he explained, anything remains possible—both in terms of climbing the table and slipping down it. A born realist, Kovac was not implying that, with a fluke or two, his side could still overhaul Bayern.

Nor did he suggest that a top-four finish—still not mathematically certain after the loss to Leverkusen—was at risk. His real target was to guard against the kind of slump in intensity his side showed against Leverkusen, and earlier versus VfB Stuttgart and Hamburger SV.

One of Kovac’s greatest achievements this season is that the much-feared debate in Dortmund—often paralysing and leading nowhere—about the team’s mentality never even began to take shape. Their possession play has sometimes lacked imagination, yet Kovac has instilled a refusal to surrender, a trait that papered over deeper issues until recently. Saturday’s trip to TSG Hoffenheim represents a potential title gift for Bayern should Dortmund stumble again.

While Dortmund may not lose sleep over Bayern’s title party, if this BVB side truly wants to carry Kovac’s stamp, it should show the same passion for victory in Hoffenheim as it did on Saturday when it confronted fans who booed Nico Schlotterbeck.

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