After the severe setback in the Bayern hunt, Borussia Dortmund's captain Marco Reus instigated a tactical squabble with coach Marco Rose in the first frustration.
"The first half could be completely forgotten," said the goalscorer at Sky after the deserved 1: 2 at RB Leipzig and etched against the five-chain system tried by his coach: "We can't handle that, you have to be very clear . “It only got better after switching to the usual row of four in defense.
"That suits us much better because we are much more active there," said Reus.
At the end of the unsatisfactory working day, BVB was second in the Bundesliga and four points behind the record champions from Munich. And the apparently heartfelt criticism from Reus made it clear that not everything is rosy in Dortmund under the new coach. The critic himself countered rather tightly: “It's not a question of the system. We have already scored points with a back three. The discussion is superfluous. "
Why BVB offered an underground first half in his hometown of Leipzig and was only in the game after the changeover, even Rose could not explain watertight. On the other hand, Leipzig finally celebrated a victory against a great opponent thanks to the goals of the all-outstanding Christopher Nkunku and Yussuf Poulsen - and took coach Jesse Marsch out of the line of fire. “That was a breakthrough. We have finally rewarded ourselves for the hard work, ”said Emil Forsberg.
In terms of the table, it was primarily a successful weekend for Bayern. Dortmund is back at arm's length for the time being, Leipzig, ten points behind, is not (yet) in danger. At least BVB has it in their own hands with two remaining games against Munich. In addition, they are looking forward to the upcoming international break, which has less to do with the two defeats within four days (1: 3 against Ajax in the Champions League).
"We are in a phase where we are missing a few things and are not going to go easily," said Rose. Before the first duel with Bayern at the beginning of December, the 45-year-old has three more games to experiment in order to find the defensive formation that the team would like. The many injured - Erling Haaland, Raphael Guerreiro, Emre Can, Giovanni Reyna and Mahmoud Dahoud, among others, were missing in Leipzig - Rose did not want to cite as an argument. “That doesn't matter to me, because otherwise I can look for something different every week,” said the native of Leipzig. However, he hoped that "one or the other will now come back".
The fact that there is a defensive problem cannot be dismissed out of hand. With 17 goals conceded, Dortmund has conceded more than any other top team so far, which should not only be due to the currently three missing left-backs. Rose emphasized that they had stabilized defensively. However, it is questionable whether the zero-match games against second division Ingolstadt and Cologne that he cited actually meet BVB's standards.
The best example of the wild defensive behavior was the second Leipzig goal, which Reus rightly described as "dumb".
Only four people from Leipzig performed eight astonished Dortmund spectators in such a way that Poulsen could slide into the long post completely unhindered.
After all, Leipzig is now in the Champions League places and the criticized coach Marsch can treat himself to a quiet international break.
Before the games against Paris (2: 2) and Dortmund, he probably would not have believed that himself, despite his permanently optimistic attitude.