Post-Match Reactions: Defensive Errors Dump Dortmund Out of the Champions League
· Yahoo Sports
If there’s one thing you can say for Borussia Dortmund, it’s that they don’t half ass anything. Unfortunately, that includes defensive collapses that end their Champions League campaign. BVB certainly whole assed their way out of Europe, giving up a two-goal first leg advantage over Atalanta by losing 4-1 in the return leg.
Atalanta certainly put in a much better performance than last week, but Dortmund’s comedy of errors was a huge helping hand. Every single Atalanta goal included at least one Dortmund defender making a costly error, and the entire backline looked scrambled all night long. There were signs of life in the second half, and while the offense was limited, there were several good efforts that easily could have ended up in the back of the Atalanta net. But even when BVB seemed like the team most likely to find a winner, the defense was able to snatch defeat in the most hilarious way possible.
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BVB are going to have to pick themselves up and get ready to go again with Bayern Munich waiting for them this weekend. The Bundesliga title race is all but over, but the least Dortmund can do is put some pressure on Bayern and show they can compete. Before we turn our attention to Der Klassiker this weekend, let’s wrap up our Champions League campaign with some final thoughts on last night’s 4-1 collapse against Atalanta.
Bensebaini Led the Way But the Entire Defense Was Abysmal
Ramy Bensebaini claimed the headlines, and deservedly so. Bensebaini’s performance was among the worst I’ve seen from a defender in a long time. But he had multiple helping hands from everyone around him. No one in the backline had a good game, and several had terrible games. Emre Can looked completely off the pace on both sides of the ball, Waldemar Anton spent all night getting ragdolled and turned inside out by Gianluca Scamacca, and Daniel Svensson meandered through the game without ever really landing a glove on any of his opponents. If you thought the backline was poor, things were made significantly worse by Gregor Kobel gifting Atalanta one last chance right at the end of the game.
Still, though, Bensebaini’s performance was head and shoulders above everyone else’s. The Algerian defender had a hand in all four of Atalanta’s goals. He was awful.
Bensebaini was almost solely responsible for Atalanta’s first two goals. He made a needless (and poor) intervention on a cross for the first goal (though it was unclear if Svensson was vocal enough in the moment). On the second goal, he made a haphazard attempt to get something in front of a Zappacosta shot that Kobel had covered. Kobel was clearly irate about Bensebaini’s decision-making in the moment, though that seems like an awfully glass house in hindsight.
The third goal wasn’t as obviously Bensebaini’s fault as the first two, but having watched it back a few times, I think we was pretty poor both in terms of covering his zone and in any attempt to challenge for the header. He seemed to be torn between helping Anton pick up Scamacca and covering the two guys drifting in behind him. By the time he realised where the danger was, it was too late. Bensebaini didn’t cover himself in glory on this play, but it was a team effort. The BVB backline was dealing with a numerical disadvantage, but it seemed like no one was communicating and it was clear that no one knew who they should be covering or where the threat was developing. Anton got manhandled as the cross came in and Svensson looked lost, contributing very little as a result. Perhaps Bensebaini might have had a better night if he wasn’t being left to drown by everyone else around him.
Finally, on the fourth goal, the one which will probably survive in everyone’s memory far longer than any other goal on the night, Bensebaini’s terrible night was brought to a slightly early conclusion. He misjudged the cross and wasn’t in an ideal position to make an intervention, but he tried to make a play and it ended terribly. I don’t think he was entirely blameless, but the vast majority of the responsibility for Atalanta’s fourth goal lies with Gregor Kobel. Kobel completely misjudged the trajectory of a through ball as he came out to deal with it, and in his attempt to control it found himself completely flat-footed. As a result, he was unable to get the ball from out under himself and made a weak, easily intercepted pass to Emre Can. It was several errors in judgement to go along with a major execution error, and everything that happened after Kobel’s intervention was just failed attempts to fix the mess he created.
The Penalty Was Uncontroversial
I don’t think this is a particularly hot take, and from what I’ve seen so far most Dortmund fans are already in this camp, but the penalty call was totally fine. I don’t think it was a stonewall penalty and a second yellow, but I think it’s really hard to argue that the referee made the wrong call. At the end of the day, when you fling your boot out into the unknown and it ends up connecting with an opponent and bursting their head like a grape, you probably shouldn’t try and argue the details.
The picture paints a pretty grim story. Bensebaini’s boot is above waist height, his studs are up, and he can’t see exactly where Nikola Krstovic is. Having watched the replay a couple times now, it’s also clear Bensebaini’s boot connects with head before it connects with ball. That’s about as reckless as it gets. The fact Krstovic is diving for the ball and his head is a little lower than shoulder height serves as a slightly mitigating factor, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near enough for fans to feel wronged by the referee’s decision.
Blame Kehl, Not Kovač
I have heard some complaints about Niko Kovač’s decisions on the night, from the starting lineup to the timing of the subs. I think you could quibble about some of the calls, but on balance I think a lot of that is just hindsight. You can certainly argue the changes were a little late, but I also think fans tend to overrate the value in early substitutions. Early subs can be ineffective because the opposition defense is not fatigued enough for the substitutes to exploit, and changing things too soon after the break can make it difficult for a team to keep its structure. I don’t think the choice is quite as simple as fans typically believe.
The bigger problem is that Niko Kovač is trying to stretch out a very thin squad that has faced three huge games in just over a week and has another one coming this weekend. He has been dealt a really bad hand, so he is limited in his options to affect games. The decision to not bolster the squad in the January transfer window compounded the problem, forcing Kovač to try and get results without being afforded the luxury of well rested players and rotation. All of this is a front office problem.
We spend a lot of time talking about BVB’s “mentality problems”, but I think a lack of quality and depth are the biggest culprits. Middling players will not deliver results with any consistency. Tired legs can and often will collapse. The problem is that the squad at Kovač‘s disposal is pretty average, and it’s now ludicrously thin too. Sebastian Kehl and the whole front office have created this situation, and the only reason the season has not been a failure is because Niko Kovač has performed miracles.
Some Quickfire Thoughts
- I think it was a poor performance, but I also think Dortmund were pretty unlucky to come away from this having conceded four goals. Yes there were many, many individual errors, but even so, it still required some rough luck for that to lead to a 4-1 loss.
- I thought Maximilian Beier had a really good game. I know he got a nomination for Man of the Match, but I still think his performance went a little under the radar. He almost grabbed a goal, and all of BVB’s best moments ran through him.
- I was also pleased with Serhou Guirassy’s performance. I know he fluffed his lines on one of his chances, but I thought he got into some really dangerous positions and he put up a total of 0.47 xG. Given how much BVB struggled, I think that’s pretty impressive.
- Finally, to round out my list of shout outs to the few rare positives from a bad night, Karim Adeyemi and Carney Chukwuemeka both looked good when they came on.
Your Thoughts?
What did you make of BVB’s performance last night? Who was most at fault for BVB’s Champions League campaign coming to an early conclusion? Let us know in the comments.