Dortmund Bochum match preview

Against Köln we saw Dortmund in a double pivot, we also saw a fairly weak performance

Assuming the lineup and tactics remain I see the double pivot working well with Karim

Bochum against Stuttgart were horrible, and their marking inside their own box was some of the worst I've seen, they conceded 5 times, once from a corner (where Dortmund looked threatening with great balls in by Julian Brandt), twice from crosses into the box, and twice from their defense being wide open

Bochum looked weak going forward, however this is a derby match and it's in the Vonovia Ruhrstadjon, a smaller stadium with the supporters very close to the players, we saw last year how one lucky goal can impact the game

It seems likely Nico Schlotterbeck will be integrated back into the starting 11 this weekend along with Karim Adeyemi, overall from a tactical standpoint I believe the same goes, with the double pivot it failed against Köln for one sole purpose, the counter-tactics from Steffen Baumgart, who expected and embraced the double pivot, as seen here (excuse the poor graphic), Dortmund were not able to play down the middle positively due to the marking by Köln

With Bochum, their marking is not the best, this will open play up significantly and not force balls out to Ryerson and Bensebaini who have no options to play the ball forward

Bochum do present the counterattacking threat we saw with Köln at times, with Bochum having an almost identical chance against Stuttgart like this one Köln had

However Bochum look even weaker than last year, but a response wouldn't be out of view, but their response would look like a 3-0 loss instead of 5-0

Player to watch:

Sebastien Haller

Haller is a very threatening presence in the box already, but throw in Bochum's poor marking and it makes him even more dangerous. He could easily get 2 goals this weekend and maybe even pick up an assist

Image via Ina Fassbender