Jurgen Klopp’s famous Borussia Dortmund side is one of the most iconic teams in recent memory. They emerged as a genuine European powerhouse, so much so that their massive decline in Klopp’s final season at the club almost slips under the radar.
The two-time Bundesliga winners and 2012/13 Champions League finalists endured a nightmare 2014/15 campaign, spending half the season flirting with the relegation zone before a resurgence in February saw them salvage a semi-respectable seventh placed finish.
So, what went wrong? Here’s a look at how Klopp’s seventh and final season at Dortmund played out.
Dortmund, who finished second in the Bundesliga the previous year, lost Robert Lewandowski on a free transfer but still went on to win the 2014 DfL-Supercup, seeing off the Pole’s new employers, Bayern Munich, 2-0 with goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
That result came after Dortmund enjoyed a summer of seven wins and one draw from their nine pre-season friendlies – the only defeat coming in a 4-0 thumping by Liverpool. The level of competition was low, but Klopp’s side were scoring goals for fun, even putting ten past Swiss side Rapperswil-Jona.
An ominous omen began the season as Dortmund conceded the fastest goal in Bundesliga history on their opening day. They trailed Bayer Leverkusen after just nine seconds and eventually fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Star winger Jakub Blaszczykowski was absent for that game as he neared the end of his recovery from a nasty knee injury, with captain and star centre-back Mats Hummels also unavailable alongside midfielders Ilkay Gundogan and Nuri Sahin.
Nevertheless, the second and final game of the month was a 3-2 win over Augsburg.
Blaszczykowski picked up a fresh muscle injury as he attempted to make his return and would miss the entire month of September, as would Gundogan and Marco Reus, who damaged his ankle.
A 3-1 win over Freiburg kicked off the month before things started to take their turn. They lost 2-0 to Mainz, drew 2-2 with Stuttgart and then fell 2-1 to Schalke in the derby, with defensive lapses and individual mistakes starting to litter their performances. Klopp had vowed to ‘put things right’ against Schalke but it was arguably the poorest showing of the season so far.
Hummels made it back for all but the first game, playing 80 minutes against Schalke, but looked well off the pace.
They did, however, beat Arsenal 2-0 in the Champions League.
Fingers…
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