As Borussia Dortmund overran Bayern Munich’s midfield to win their latest meeting 4-2 and capture the DFL SuperCup,they served their famed opponents a reminder that the upcoming Bundesliga season might not be the stroll many still predict. Jurgen Klopp’s team made a bold statement,consigning Pep Guardiola to defeat in his first competitive game at his new club.
Dortmund played sublime counterattacking football with supremely quick and efficient transitions,displaying the sharpness and zip that saw them reach last season’s Champions League final. They have strengthened since with playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan and forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang,even though they have lost Mario Goetze,one of their best players,to Bayern.
The home team were physically superior to and tactically sharper than a Bayern team that is getting used to a new coach. While Guardiola tweaks his side and players get used to new ideas and systems,Klopp and die Borussen face no such problems as they go about integrating new players into a well-honed,successful system.
Guardiola’s 4-1-4-1,his version of a 4-3-3,featured new signing Thiago Alcantara as the sole holding midfielder. For a team boasting players such as the underrated Luis Gustavo,record signing Javi Martinez and club legend Bastian Schweinsteiger,all capable of filling that role,one might look at the move as an experiment.
Dortmund’s five-man midfield repeatedly bypassed die Roten’s experimental midfield,who looked uncomfortable in their new roles. Their 4-2-3-1,so pleasing to the eye and vociferously backed by the Yellow Wall,ransacked Bayern at every opportunity and defended well against their sporadic forays upfield.
Both coaches rely on systems that involve heavy pressing and high lines. Through the course of a full season though,Bayern,who boast a squad that is equivalent to two quality first teams,appear in a better position to rotate their players to keep them fresh and continue their high-intensity play. It will take a supreme effort from Dortmund,who do not boast such squad depth,to stop Bayern from engraving their name on the trophy.
Though the red shadow looms large over Germany,do not count out the yellow and blacks from lighting up the new season.
Hormazd is a senior sub-editor based in New Delhi
express@expressindia.com
