Welcome to my first article on FUTWIZ. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity the guys at FUTWIZ have offered me, this shall be the first of many articles I will write on here.
7 years ago many didn't know what they were in for when BVB appointed Jürgen Klopp as their new head coach after another season finishing in the second half of the table. Doll offered to step down and the manager of FSV Mainz, back then in 2. Bundesliga, was appointed as the club’s new manager. April 2015, he announced he would finally leave Dortmund after a very disappointing season.
Today, we're taking a closer look at Klopp's last season at Borussia Dortmund.
Pre-season and loss of another star player
After Bayern Munich winning the league again, Dortmund had their minds set on competing with the Bavarians again. Bringing in several new players in, them being Ciro Immobile, Adrian Ramos, Matthias Ginter but also old faces such as Shinji Kagawa and Nuri Sahin who signed a permanent deal after his loan spell. BVB also had to deal with losing another massive player to Bayern, this time Robert Lewandowski moved south on a free transfer.
The season started with the team spending their 2 training camps in Kitzbühel and Bad Ragaz, which have been their destinations for the past few years. Due to the World Cup in Brazil, Hummels, Ginter, Schmelzer, Weidenfeller and Bender missed the majority of pre season. With Reus also injured, it wasn't the ideal setup for what was going to be Klopp’s season at the club.
They went off to a good start, beating Bayern in a convincing 2-0 win in the German Super Cup, 3 days later strolling past Stuttgarter Kickers 4-1 in the first round of the DFB Pokal. Come the first fixture in the Bundesliga, things looked good but Leverkusen came out on top in what was a surprise 2-0 win for newly appointed Roger Schmidt and his side with Bellarabi scoring after 8 seconds, the fastest goal in Bundesliga history. Klopp's team went on to winning the two next games vs Augsburg and Freiburg. Unfortunately, Marco Reus picked up an injury which sidelined him for a little over a month, one of many he had during the season. In the following week BVB faced Arsenal at home in their Champions League opener, cruising to a 2-0 victory over the Gunners.
Start of a bad series in the league
And that's when things went wrong for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, in the following 7 games in the Bundesliga they only managed to grab 1 point, this being against Stuttgart with Immobile scoring one of his few goals in his short stint at the club. The team was stumbling their way through games until the winter break, finding themselves in 17th place after 17 games, but on the same points as last in the table Freiburg. In the DFB Pokal they faced no big challenge when they won against St. Pauli to advance to the round of sixteen. To make it even worse, Marco Reus got injured yet again after Paderborn's Bakalorz ferociously tackled the German international leaving him projected to be out for nearly 2 months. Awful news for the team and especially Dortmund's manager.
Press conferences weren't easy for him, as you'd expect. Media building up pressure with headlines that the club's officials are already looking for a possible replacement before the winter break. Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke immediately denied any of those rumours in an interview with 'SZ', stating: “There's no reason to doubt Jürgen Klopp's ability“. Fans, players and the management have shown the will to back their manager.
Oddly enough, in the Champions League Jürgen Klopp and his team didn't face overly big problems in their group finishing 1st just ahead of Arsenal with 13 points. Dortmund were then drawn against Italian giants Juventus Turin, who were having another splendid season under new manager Massimo Allegri.
Winter training camp and hopes of recovery
On the 9th of January, Borussia Dortmund were heading to „La Manga Club“, a sports resort in Cartagena, Spain for their winter training camp. Also good news for the club when players like Marco Reus and Sokratis returned to the pitch, giving Klopp a little bit more hope for the 2nd half of the season. Speaking of Reus, during the winter break he was heavily linked with Bayern. These rumours were then denied several times by Bayern München's sporting director Matthias Sammer and club's CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
The second half of the season awaited and Dortmund found themselves in 17th place, the team was raring to go and fix the precarious situation they were in. These hopes were put on hold after a draw against Leverkusen, followed by another loss to Augsburg with Dortmund hitting rock bottom. In the following week they faced Freiburg, 1 spot ahead of them at that point. Dortmund cruised to a very convincing 3-0 win with two goals by the growingly important Aubameyang and one contributed by Reus. This was probably the turning point in Dormund's Bundesliga campaign. It seemed as if Dortmund's high pressing with their trademark quick counter attacks clicked again and the likes of Sahin, Kagawa and Aubameyang picked up good form, helping the club to climb up the table.
Huge surprise news by Marco Reus
3 days later, Marco Reus made a huge announcement extending his contract until 2019. For many, including myself, a very surprising decision but an honorable one, dedicating his future to his hometown club. It definitely seemed to have made an impact on the whole atmosphere at Borussia Dortmund, especially on the pitch going on to win 5 out of their next 7 Bundesliga games and 2 draws. But of course, there was also the Champions League quarter final games against Juventus, where the Italians deservedly advanced to the semis with 5-1 on aggregate with an incredible Carlos Tévez banging in 3 goals and assisting another.
So we're in late March, Dortmund have jumped to 10th place in the Bundesliga with things looking slightly better for the Westphalians. They went on to win against Hoffenheim in extra time in the DFB Pokal to make it to the semifinals where they were up against the mighty FC Bayern. BVB had to play the ever so strong Bavarians twice in the next three weeks with Pep Guardiola’s team taking a hard fought win over Klopp's side in the Bundesliga but Dortmund winning on penalties in the DFB Pokal semi after Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm had hilariously missed their penalties by slipping.
Shock announcement for Borussia Dortmund
On the 15th of April, Dortmund called in an extraordinary press conference with Jürgen Klopp. Many speculations became reality when the manager announced that he would resign as BVB's head coach at the end of the season with also taking a sabbatical. Media immediately started to guess who would be his successor, making out Tuchel as the main candidate who was then announced as the new man in charge after the season. He has also coached Mainz before making his way to Signal-Iduna Park. Thomas Tuchel is certainly one of the best Germany has got to offer, a very complex and special tactical brain combined with a passion for fast attacking football.
Final stretch of the season
After the huge news, Klopp's team has managed to finish off their Bundesliga campaign with 4 wins out of the last 6 games which brought them up to 7th place. This has opened the possibility to play Europa League if Dortmund go through the qualification stage. In the DFB Pokal final they were up against Hecking's superb VfL Wolfsburg with the outstanding Kevin De Bruyne. Game went as planned as Aubameyang fired away the 1-0 lead in the 5th minute with Kagawa providing the assist. The Wolves responded quickly with Luiz Gustavo slotting home a rebound after a Naldo free kick. De Bruyne and Dost then sealed the win with their goals, all three scored within 16 minutes. As expected it was a very emotional goodbye after the game for Klopp and the fans.
Overall a disappointing end to Jürgen Klopp's time at the club he and sporting director Michael Zorc have transformed to an international powerhouse in 7 seasons full of ups and downs. In his time, Klopp has won 2 Bundesliga titles, one DFB Pokal and 2 German super cup trophies. If you like him or not, pretty much every Bundesliga fan will miss his intensity, funny press conferences and appreciate what he's brought to the league.
All the best for the future, Jürgen!