a écrit le 19 novembre 2013 à 16h34 Dortmund are by no means a club of insignificant resources – the Signal Iduna Park regularly sees more than 80,000 crammed into the stands – but their style of football seems intrinsically linked to Finke’s methods. Klopp is an intelligent reader of the game and is uninhibited in his tactical thinking. Against Mainz, last month, in what was then a top of the table clash, Klopp moved from his customary 4-2-3-1 to a Christmas Tree shape – the 4-3-2-1 – with a view to pack the midfield even further, not compromising though on his side’s devotion to a high tempo pressing game. The move paid rich dividends with Mario Götze – the club’s precocious eighteen-year-old winger – and Lucas Barrios scoring the goals in a 2-0 victory. Earlier, Dortmund had created a dent on reigning champions, Bayern Munich’s title bid with another 2-0 victory. Bayern have failed to recover since then, currently in fifth place, seventeen points behind Dortmund.
It’s difficult to earmark a single player responsible for Dortmund’s feats this season, but at the side’s nucleus are the two goal-scorers against Werder Bremen, Sahin and Kagawa. Sahin, still only 22, seemed destined for success right since he broke through as a teenager in 2005. He still holds the record for the being the youngest player to score in the Bundesliga – a goal against Nuremburg in November, 2005 gave him the honour. Since then, even though he was lent briefly to Feyenoord, Klopp was quick to recognise his value, starting him in 33 of the club’s 34 league games last season. Sahin, a product of the contemporary, multi-ethnic Germany, that has seen the rise of the likes of Mesut Ozil, Jerome Boateng and Sami Khedira, three of Germany’s top performers in the World Cup Finals at South Africa, was born and bred in Dortmund, although he represents Turkey, his country of origin. Blessed with a magnificent left foot, his command over the centre of midfield belies his age. His ability to pick the right pass and keep things simple without losing, though, the vision to play the Hollywood pass when necessary, sets him apart as a potential world-class talent. But, Shinji Kagawa, the twenty-one-year-old Japanese playmaker, is the jewel in Dortmund’s crown, in the words of Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian newspaper.
It’s difficult to earmark a single player responsible for Dortmund’s feats this season, but at the side’s nucleus are the two goal-scorers against Werder Bremen, Sahin and Kagawa. Sahin, still only 22, seemed destined for success right since he broke through as a teenager in 2005. He still holds the record for the being the youngest player to score in the Bundesliga – a goal against Nuremburg in November, 2005 gave him the honour. Since then, even though he was lent briefly to Feyenoord, Klopp was quick to recognise his value, starting him in 33 of the club’s 34 league games last season. Sahin, a product of the contemporary, multi-ethnic Germany, that has seen the rise of the likes of Mesut Ozil, Jerome Boateng and Sami Khedira, three of Germany’s top performers in the World Cup Finals at South Africa, was born and bred in Dortmund, although he represents Turkey, his country of origin. Blessed with a magnificent left foot, his command over the centre of midfield belies his age. His ability to pick the right pass and keep things simple without losing, though, the vision to play the Hollywood pass when necessary, sets him apart as a potential world-class talent. But, Shinji Kagawa, the twenty-one-year-old Japanese playmaker, is the jewel in Dortmund’s crown, in the words of Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian newspaper.
