Borussia Dortmund sacks Nuri Sahin: What went wrong? Do the Bundesliga giants really need a ‘Dortmund player’? | soccer news

There is a clear contradiction at the heart of Borussia Dortmund. The yellow and black BVB brand, popular around the world, was created with the idea that the superclub, a Champions League finalist in June, is a little different from its rivals.

With 80,000 fans inside the Westfalenstadion and 25,000 packed into the huge tribune at the south end of the stadium, it creates a unique sound and story. As the Bundesliga says, football is what it was meant to be. They don’t buy superstars here, they make them themselves.

In part, what defines Dortmund is also what it is not. If you talk to people within the club, they will tell you that they want to be as big as possible, but they don’t want to be Bayern Munich. Dortmund is huge. But the message is that they are family too. you should get it.

I recently announced my coaching appointment. Edin Terzic had a compelling story. He stood at the yellow wall as a boy and won his first Bundesliga title in 10 years, traveling to Wembley last season.

When both Tercic and Dortmund were forced to admit that he lacked the requisite qualities to get the job done, the club turned to their own super coach rather than that of a super club. Former player and local boy Nuri Sahin took over.

Sahin is from Dortmund and that is even more important in this part of the Ruhr region. Speaking to him shortly after his return to Dortmund, he explained it in emotional terms. “I listened to my heart and my heart told me I had to go back and help the club because they need you.”

If his name was already woven into Dortmund’s history, across two spells as a player, his time in charge of Turkish club Antalyaspor might not have been compelling enough for him to be asked about.

Sahin, who initially returned as Terzic’s assistant, is exceptionally bright and a keen student of the game. But the adjustment to a top job at a European giant was difficult. He left them bottom of the Bundesliga table.

Four consecutive defeats in January further highlighted the decline, the second of which was against then bottom club Holsten Kiel, with Dortmund down three in the first half and conceding a fourth despite their opponents being reduced to 10 men. .

This is far from everything up to Sahin. The high-tempo brand of football that Dortmund was famous for is no longer so evident. Even the hiring strategy is less defined. The average age of the starting lineup against St. Pauli in October was almost 29.

But Dortmund have won just once in nine Bundesliga away games and have looked hopelessly disorganized, playing error-riddled match after error-riddled match. Faith in Sahin evaporated in an attempt to limp along while talking about the long term. Tuesday’s defeat in Bologna was too big.

Is it time to rethink your entire strategy? The question posed to Executive Director Carsten Cramer when he visited the city earlier this season was clear: It was a risky idea to speak in their office, but do you really need to be a Dortmund guy?

After all, this is a club that has only won the Champions League once, with that defining moment coming in 1997. That victory came under Otmar Hitzfeld, a German born on the Swiss border, who spent much of his time playing and coaching in Switzerland. Life.

His only German team as a player was VfB Stuttgart. Another of their great coaches, Jurgen Klopp, is from Swabia, and after a long association with Mainz rather than Dortmund, he guided the club to back-to-back titles and even embodied the club’s ethos.

If the two greatest coaches in Dortmund’s history are both outsiders who have increased the club’s reputation and mystique more than any local coach before or since, then why is Kramer and his team obsessed with coaches who simply get Dortmund rather than shaping it? What is it?

“That’s a good question,” Kramer said. sky sports.

“Otmar Hitzfeld was not hired, Jurgen Klopp was not hired. It wasn’t From Dortmund. So I would say we were looking for the best players available in that situation and decided to choose Hitzfeld and then Klopp.

“Now we are in different times. It is more than just a coincidence that Nuri Sahin is a Dortmund player, Lars Ricken (sporting CEO) is a Dortmund player and at least Sebastian Kell (sporting director) is also a Dortmund player.” “Tell me that’s right for us now.”

Cramer added: “We are very happy to have Dortmund players, but it is not a strategy to simply hire Dortmund players. Lars will explain: He runs the youth department and has not played for Dortmund. For Dortmund it was Lars who invited him to work.

“Of course we have Lukas (Piszcek) as an assistant coach to Nuri Sahin, but the rest are coming from elsewhere. So it is nice to have, but there is no clear demand from the club that we should just take it, Dortmund.”

But the guiding principles are laudable. Dortmund should never be a stepping stone. “We think continuity and commitment to this club and not seeing the club as just one step in your career where you can move forward as quickly as possible is a huge advantage in this era.”

Cramer added: “We are not taking any action because we are complaining about the previous approach, but we know that the mentality in Dortmund is very special and the more identification we have with the club, the more comfortable we feel about it.”

He anticipates a reaction. Comfortable? Is that really the purpose here? “I would say let’s see,” he admitted. “Come back in two, three, four years and ask me the question again. I hope I’m right. If not, I’ll tell you you asked the right question.”

That question was asked two months ago, not two years ago. But Dortmund had no choice but to change direction. A lot is made up of culture, which is obviously important. But this is clearly about someone’s future, not their past. Maybe Dortmund should start finding theirs.