Headline: Borussia Dortmund Revamps Squad with Strategic Transfers Ahead of 2026/27 Season
In the latest installment of the Get German Football News Bundesliga 2026/27 Tactical Previews, attention turns to Borussia Dortmund, a club with a complex history in German football. Last summer, Borussia Dortmund faced criticism over their assertion of possessing a “legitimate inheritance” after consistently trailing behind Bayern Munich for over a decade. The author noted the club’s status as perennial contenders without a title, suggesting supporters keep their title hopes in check—a sentiment underscored when Dortmund finished as runners-up last season.
The challenge of predicting Dortmund’s trajectory now resembles an odyssey. Despite plans seeming straightforward, unexpected setbacks, like a last-minute equalizer from St. Pauli in stoppage time, can leave fans and analysts alike perplexed.
The author, who finds himself reflecting on both Greek mythology and Dortmund’s frantic transfer activity, acknowledges a sense of expectation. Competing for a Bundesliga title after fourteen years without one may seem daunting, but the author feels that the club owes him one for missed cinematic experiences during the busy transfer window.
Last season indicated progress as Dortmund finished as runners-up, experiencing fewer disappointing matches against lower-tier teams. The new sporting director, Nils Ole Book, has made notable signings totaling €56 million, bringing in Konstantinos Karetsas from Genk and Giannis Konstantelias from PAOK. While Joey Veerman joined from PSV, his Dutch nationality offers limited narrative value compared to the Greek duo, which the author has woven into his theme.
Borussia Dortmund’s Summer Strategy
The actual progress made during the summer aligns with the narrative’s theme. Manager Kovač chose to retain the successful 3-4-2-1 formation while significantly revamping player roles. The arrivals of young talent and additional creativity in midfield aim to enhance performance and reduce reliance on established players whose performance has stagnated. The financial outlay signifies an ambition to improve rather than simply relying on past frameworks.
Key Transfers and Personnel Changes
Dortmund’s estimated summer transfer balance stands at -€70m. The club invested €108.5 million this summer, most of which focuses on reinforcing the attacking setup. The signings of Karetsas for €30 million and Konstantelias for €26 million aim for a fresh attacking outlook, particularly following the departures of Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi, who left for Ajax and Barcelona, respectively.
The midfield adjustments include Joey Veerman’s arrival for €22 million, bringing valuable distribution capabilities to an otherwise chaotic setup. Dortmund focused on enhancing their midfield dynamics rather than a formation overhaul, allowing for improved ball possession and creativity.
The defensive strategy mirrored the youth-centric recruitment approach, with the acquisition of 19-year-old Joane Gadou for €19.5 million from Salzburg and other young players to strengthen the backline. The average age of incoming players is notably young, highlighting the focus on nurturing talent.
Several veteran players, including Adeyemi and Brandt, have departed, as part of an effort to inject more technical quality into the squad. The substantial changes illustrate Dortmund’s commitment to evolution, as they seek to enhance both performance and creativity on the field.
Pre-season Performance Insights
Dortmund’s pre-season matches showcased a mixture of promising performances and areas for improvement. The team’s configuration appeared youthful at times, with initial awkwardness transitioning into greater cohesion as the summer progressed. An early stalemate against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen was followed by a more convincing victory after tactical adjustments. Other matches, including encounters with teams in Japan, revealed both strengths and weaknesses, particularly regarding possession and creativity.
Against FC Tokyo, Dortmund’s lineup stabilized, delivering a solid performance to secure a victory. The inclusion of inverted wing-backs proved fruitful, as Kovač adjusted player positioning to exploit space and enhance attacking options. A notable triumph against Arsenal highlighted the potential of new signings, particularly as young players like Inácio and Karetsas excelled alongside seasoned teammates.
Evaluating Key Players from Pre-season
Fábio Silva, CF
Dortmund’s first-choice striker, Serhou Guirassy, remains pivotal, but Fábio Silva impressed during pre-season, establishing himself as a credible alternative. His versatility and attacking intent suggest that the backup forward role could evolve into something strategically valuable for Kovač.
Samuele Inácio, SS/AM
The 18-year-old Inácio gained significant experience during pre-season, demonstrating maturity in high-pressure scenarios, including his contributions against top-tier opposition like Arsenal.
Takato Yamamoto, AM/CM
Yamamoto rose in prominence as the summer progressed. He adapted to senior roles, showing a willingness to contribute effectively to the first team’s plans, solidifying his status as a noteworthy asset.
Konstantinos Karetsas, AM
Karetsas’s transition into the squad was exceptional, with his immediate impact underscoring his potential. His performances suggest that he could play a crucial role in Dortmund’s immediate plans.
Joane Gadou, CB
Gadou, whose arrival was marked by excitement, received ample playing time throughout pre-season, indicating his importance in the team’s defensive structure.
Identifying Failures and Areas for Growth
Young midfielder Jude Bellingham’s fluctuating role reflects the competitive nature of the squad following new arrivals, while player injuries disrupted performances for others, like Carney Chukwuemeka.
Competitive Outlook
Dortmund commenced the season facing Bayern München in the Supercup, but the result underscored the need for further adjustments within their tactical structure. However, the proofs of concept established throughout pre-season, combined with promising signings, bode well for the club’s aspirations this season. The framework remains, yet the enhancements—especially regarding player roles and combinations—will be critical as Dortmund pursue a successful campaign.
Our Get German Football News Bundesliga 2026/27 Tactical Previews series now returns to Westphalia and to a club this author has spent far too many years attempting to understand. Last summer’s Borussia Dortmund section began by revisiting Sebastian Kehl’s unfortunate suggestion that BVB possessed some sort of “legitimate inheritance” after spending more than a decade dutifully finishing behind Bayern. The author responded by calling Dortmund German football’s perennial also-rans, answering the annual title question with an immediate “of course not” and ultimately recommending that everyone keep their title aspirations comfortably at zero.
This was, naturally, followed by Dortmund finishing second.
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Hrumph.
One reaches a certain point in this profession at which predicting Borussia Dortmund begins to resemble trying to navigate home from Troy. The route appears straightforward on the map. The vessel looks sturdy enough. Everyone aboard has performed this task before. Then some idiot opens a bag full of wind, somebody else hears singing coming from a suspicious island, the centre-backs lose track of a Cyclops at a corner and—before anyone understands precisely what happened—we’re all drifting around the Mediterranean wondering why St. Pauli have just equalized in stoppage time.
Such is the Dortmund experience. The author genuinely wishes he could weave in some more references to “The Odyssey”, but Dortmund’s busy end to the transfer window literally precluded him from finding three hours of spare time to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest epic. Instead of catching up on his Greek mythology, he found himself writing endless transfer pieces on Greek BVB signings. Having been rudely deprived of some deserved escapism, the author now feels as if Dortmund legitimately owe him something. Fourteen years without a Bundesliga title can be forgiven. Being forced to cancel movie appointments cannot.
Last season at least represented meaningful progress in the voyage. Dortmund finished runners-up. There were fewer weekends on which one watched BVB drop points to a team whose annual wage bill roughly equals Gregor Kobel’s glove budget. Thankfully, new sporting director Nils Ole Book and his colleagues have supplied assistance by spending €56 million on two Greeks. Konstantinos Karetsas has arrived from Genk. Giannis Konstantelias has followed from PAOK. Joey Veerman has joined from PSV as well, but he is Dutch and therefore largely useless to the literary conceit being constructed here. We have an Odyssey to write and the Nederlanders shall simply have to wait their turn.
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For once, however, the joke may be on the author.
Dortmund appear quite good.
Borussia Dortmund
Taking a brief break from the overextended mythology narrative, Dortmund’s actual summer tells a more concrete story. Kovač has retained the 3-4-2-1 that carried BVB to second place while the club aggressively reworked the personnel inside it: more creativity behind Guirassy, more control in midfield, more speed and youth in defense, and considerably less patience for several established names whose trajectories had begun to flatten. The result is not a rebuild so much as a recalibration, one expensive enough to suggest that Dortmund are no longer merely hoping the existing structure evolves on its own.
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Major personnel shifts, Dortmund
Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = -€70m
Dortmund have spent €108.5m this summer, which feels like a great deal of money until one remembers that approximately half of it has apparently been devoted to recreating ancient Greece behind Serhou Guirassy. Konstantinos Karetsas arrived from Genk for €30m. Giannis Konstantelias followed from PAOK for another €26m. The Greek double act forms the centerpiece of a significant attacking reset that saw a pair of Germans pitched to the wind. Julian Brandt departed for Ajax on a free and Karim Adeyemi joined Barcelona for €22m.
Joey Veerman’s €22m arrival from PSV changes the midfield underneath them. The Dutchman gives Kovač something his side occasionally lacked even when everything else worked last season: a calmer distributor capable of controlling possession and punching vertical passes through the first opposition line. Felix Nmecha remains the established box-to-box force. Dortmund have therefore spent heavily not to replace Kovač’s 3-4-2-1, but to make the people occupying its central spaces considerably better at doing interesting things with the ball.
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The defensive investment followed the same youthful pattern. Nineteen-year-old Joane Gadou cost €19.5m from Salzburg. Brazilian left-back Kauã Prates arrived from Cruzeiro for another €7m. Eighteen-year-old Ecuadorian Justin Lerma cost €4m. Behind them, Samuele Inácio, Mathis Albert, Enzo dos Santos and Mussa Kaba all moved upward from Dortmund’s youth or reserve structure. The average age of the incoming group is an almost absurd 19.7 years. One can properly laud Lars Ricken and Book for doing their homework this summer by recruiting players still in need of homeschooling.
Plenty of older or stalled projects have consequently moved elsewhere. Adeyemi and Brandt headline the departures, while Julien Duranville joined Lyon for €5m, Cole Campbell moved to Elversberg for €6m and Kjell Wätjen left for Midtjylland for €2.5m. Yan Couto departed on loan to Como, Salih Özcan left for Beşiktaş, and Niklas Süle opted to finally call it a career. Diant Ramaj and Almugera Kabar went back out on loan. Taken together, the turnover looks like an effort to bring in more technical quality in precisely the zones where Kovač’s football occasionally became too predictable.
The shape, in other words, has survived. The cast has not. Dortmund have spent roughly €70m net trying to give Kovač younger legs, better passers and enough attacking imagination to prevent another season from becoming an extended exercise in waiting for Guirassy to solve everything. Whether Karetsas and Konstantelias eventually return from their own odyssey carrying Champions League treasure remains a problem for later.
For now, at least, Ithaca appears to be somewhere around the Signal Iduna Park.
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Notes from pre-season, Dortmund
Dortmund’s summer began with so many teenagers on the pitch that matters looked like a literal youth summer camp. Regionalligist Rot-Weiß Oberhausen bullied a wildly experimental XI for much of the opening half before Justin Lerma salvaged a 1-1 interval score with his first BVB goal. A completely reconstructed side then restored the expected order after the break. Guirassy scored. Takato Yamamoto added another and Dortmund won 3-1. Yamamoto’s contribution proved especially inconvenient for the club’s original plans. Signed from Gamba Osaka on loan with a purchase option and supposedly destined for the U23, the 18-year-old impressed a coach who openly admitted he barely knew who he was.
Fortuna Düsseldorf supplied the first useful tactical material. Dortmund again fielded a youth-heavy side, but the familiar Kovač architecture remained clearly visible. Build-up came from a back three. Yamamoto and Mathis Albert operated as aggressive half-forwards and jumped onto the opposing centre-backs. The high press worked rather well, even if the equally high defensive line naturally invited counters. Albert scored after chasing down a long Alexander Meyer ball and Dortmund led at halftime. Then came the traditional pre-season ritual in which everyone changed at once and all prior conclusions were deposited into a nearby recycling bin. The replacement side pressed far less aggressively, generated almost nothing and conceded twice in a 2-1 defeat.
The Japan trip initially provided more frustration than enlightenment. Cerezo Osaka pressed Dortmund into submission for half an hour, scored from an early corner and eventually won 1-0. Kovač’s 3-4-2-1 remained intact, but the problem was increasingly obvious: Dortmund could establish possession without doing much of interest with it. Even after an eight-player change delivered greater control, accuracy in the final third remained conspicuously absent. Filippo Mané also departed with a thigh problem. The more cheerful development concerned Yamamoto, who started again and created Dortmund’s best first-half chance for Guirassy. The U23 player whom Kovač hadn’t known a fortnight earlier was becoming increasingly difficult to return to sender.
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Several World Cup returnees reappeared against FC Tokyo and immediately restored a little adult supervision. Dortmund looked much more stable and won 1-0 through Fábio Silva. The more interesting experiment took place on the flanks. Maximilian Beier worked from the left and natural left-footer Daniel Svensson from the right. Kovač later explained the logic: opposite-footed wing-backs could attack inside, overload the centre and create space for switches rather than simply attempting to sprint past full-backs down the touchline. Dortmund do not possess many classical wing-backs, so Kovač decided to stop pretending that they did. He liked the experiment enough to call it an option for the future.
Then Arsenal happened. Dortmund travelled to the Emirates and won 3-2 despite the reigning English champions creating considerably more chances. The result could scarcely have advertised the squad’s youth movement any more aggressively. Eighteen-year-old Samuele Inácio finished Nmecha’s through ball for the opener. Eighteen-year-old Konstantinos Karetsas curled home a gorgeous second from the edge of the box. Nineteen-year-old Joane Gadou added the third after a corner. Arsenal did plenty of attacking. Dortmund did the rather important business of putting the ball into the net. Compactness, intensity and efficiency have defined Kovač’s BVB; this was an unusually literal demonstration of the final item.
The Roma Generalprobe then showed how much the attacking picture had changed. Dortmund somehow found themselves 2-0 down after nine minutes before Karetsas took control of proceedings. His delivery helped create Ryerson’s response, his vertical pass later released Inácio and two second-half efforts nearly supplied the winner. Guirassy equalized from a Ryerson free kick, while Dortmund pushed Roma back for long stretches thereafter. The wing-back experiment returned too, only with another permutation: Svensson again worked from the right while Ryerson occupied the left. Their collaboration directly produced the first goal. Apparently Kovač’s wing-backs now come with reversible instructions.
The summer therefore ended much more coherently than it began. The existing tactical system never really went anywhere. The press remained aggressive, Guirassy remained the reference point, and Kovač increasingly used inverted wing-backs to manufacture central overloads. What changed was the quality inside the structure. Early Dortmund could control matches and still spend long stretches searching unsuccessfully for the button marked “create something.” By Arsenal and Roma, Karetsas, Inácio and the rest of the young attacking contingent had begun pressing it repeatedly.
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All of this gave us something coherent to test when the football began to matter.
Winners from camp, Dortmund
Fábio Silva, CF
Serhou Guirassy remains Dortmund’s starting striker. Let us dispense with any unnecessary suspense there. Fábio Silva nevertheless produced exactly the sort of preparation required to make the position behind him considerably less ceremonial. He threatened against Oberhausen, came within inches of rescuing the Cerezo defeat and then scored the winner against FC Tokyo after reacting quicker than everyone around him. He also created Beier’s best first-half opportunity in that match. Year Two looks to be significantly better than Year One. Admittedly, that isn’t saying much.
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Silva’s profile remains different from Guirassy’s. He moves more, seeks different spaces and cannot reproduce all of the Guinean’s physical work as a reference point. The point is that he no longer needs to. A backup striker becomes substantially more useful when replacing the starter does not require photocopying him. Silva leaves preparation as a credible alternative capable of changing the attack rather than simply maintaining it. Incidentally, this pre-written thesis received some confirmation once the competitive scout began. Allow the author a brief and rare victory lap.
Samuele Inácio, SS/AM
Inácio began preparation as another member of the enormous Dortmund youth delegation and gradually made it increasingly difficult to send him back downstairs. The 18-year-old eventually received serious minutes with increasingly serious teammates. Then came Arsenal. Nmecha released him after seven minutes and Inácio finished with all the apparent anxiety of someone completing an uncomplicated training drill rather than putting Dortmund ahead against the English champions at the Emirates.
He retained an important role in the Roma Generalprobe, where Gadou’s ball recovery and Karetsas’ excellent pass sent him through. That chance didn’t go in, but the impression remains what Germans call “imponiert”. Inácio was no longer being hidden inside youth-heavy experimental lineups. He was starting alongside Karetsas and behind Guirassy against Champions League opposition. The arrival of Konstantelias makes the path brutally competitive. Inácio nevertheless leaves camp having ensured that Kovač must at least remember where he put the youngster’s number.
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Takato Yamamoto, AM/CM
Whether or not this youngster earns regular Bundesliga minutes this season remains debatable. We’ll simply note that Kovač left the door to the first team open and Yamamoto, putting his best foot forward, attempted to repeatedly walk through it. He started the Düsseldorf friendly as one of Dortmund’s two high half-forwards, started again against Cerezo and created Guirassy’s best first-half chance, then replaced injured senior attacker Chukwuemeka early against Tokyo. The most important development here is not any single goal or assist. Yamamoto transformed himself from planned U23 player into someone Kovač kept finding first-team uses for. That is precisely what a pre-season Winner looks like.
Konstantinos Karetsas, AM
This one requires zero debate. Dortmund spent €30m on an 18-year-old and then watched him treat the normal adjustment period as though it were some quaint Bundesliga custom applicable to other people. Karetsas scored beautifully against Arsenal, started again in the Roma Generalprobe and subsequently spent much of that match tormenting the Italians. Karetsas didn’t merely produce enough highlights to populate a full pre-season compilation. Kovač already trusted him in one of the two attacking half-spaces when the opposition became serious. Odysseus required ten years to get where he was going. Karetsas needed roughly three weeks.
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Joane Gadou, CB
Dortmund did not spend €19.5m on Joane Gadou merely to give the 19-year-old an excellent view of Waldemar Anton’s back. The former Salzburg defender played throughout pre-season, returned immediately after a brief interruption caused by circulatory problems and started against Arsenal. He then scored Dortmund’s third goal at the Emirates because apparently the summer’s teenage takeover required representation from every positional department. Gadou’s pace, physicality and progressive defending already suit the outer role in Kovač’s back three. While Nico Schlotterbeck remains unavailable, the first XI suddenly looks considerably closer than expected.
Losers from camp, Dortmund
Calling Bellingham a camp Loser requires some qualification. He played plenty, remained involved with the stronger selections and did nothing to suggest that Kovač suddenly distrusts him. Unfortunately for the 20-year-old, Dortmund decided late in the summer that the central midfield required Joey Veerman. Twenty-two million euros later, the PSV controller now appears extremely likely to partner Felix Nmecha whenever Kovač wants his best combination of progression and box-to-box power. Yikes. From projected Bundesliga starter to a candidate for the dreaded “Rotationsspieler” classification! Sometimes one loses camp not because of anything that happens on the training pitch, but because the sporting director returns from the Netherlands carrying a receipt.
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Carney Chukwuemeka, AM/CM
An unpleasant category rather than a particularly deserved one. Chukwuemeka returned from his shortened summer break against FC Tokyo and immediately became involved in Dortmund’s best early move, combining with Bellingham before setting up Silva. Unfortunately, his right knee also became involved with the turf shortly beforehand. He attempted to continue but lasted only until the 23rd minute. Later muscular problems then kept him out of the Roma Generalprobe. Missing pre-season time is inconvenient enough. Missing it while Dortmund spend €56m on Karetsas and Konstantelias and simultaneously watch Inácio, Yamamoto and Albert demand attention is considerably worse.
Almugera Kabar, LB/CB
Kabar received opportunities during the heavily experimental opening phase of preparation, but his summer ultimately moved in the opposite direction to Yamamoto, Inácio and Gadou. While those youngsters forced themselves progressively closer to Kovač’s first-team plans, the Germany youth international eventually headed to NEC Nijmegen on loan. That may prove exactly the correct developmental move. Kauã Prates arrived, the senior back-three and wing-back options remained crowded and Kabar’s minutes were better sought elsewhere. In a summer when seemingly every Dortmund teenager attempted to storm the senior squad simultaneously, somebody was inevitably going to discover that there weren’t enough chairs.
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Tactical Supercup scout, Dortmund
The good news about Dortmund’s first competitive match is that “new-look” Dortmund appeared well-rehearsed and largely coherent after Kovač’s pre-season work. The bad news is that Bayern München walked away with the silverware again. The 1-2 defeat also became progressively messier than the scoreline suggests. Ramy Bensebaini completed an especially miserable evening by seeing straight red in the 90th minute for his challenge on Ismael Saibari. One can still treat the opening 75 minutes as a useful tactical sample.
Kovač remained faithful to his 3-4-2-1 for the Supercup. Joane Gadou’s strong summer earned him an immediate competitive start alongside Waldemar Anton and Ramy Bensebaini. Felix Nmecha and Jobe Bellingham worked centrally, while Samuele Inácio and Konstantinos Karetsas occupied the attacking half-spaces behind Serhou Guirassy. Most interestingly, Kovač also carried his opposite-footed wing-back experiment straight into a match that actually mattered. Natural left-footer Daniel Svensson started on the right. Julian Ryerson shifted over to the left.
Lineup–BVB (Supercup)
For around 25 minutes, there was enough promise to justify the experiment. Ryerson won possession high early, Karetsas clipped one clever ball behind the Bayern line for Guirassy and later produced an excellent diagonal switch toward the left. The young Greek also worked diligently backward to help Svensson deal with Luis Díaz. Dortmund could move the ball through the structure. The problem arrived when Bayern began asking more difficult questions.
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The defending champions gradually secured possession, accelerated through midfield and forced Dortmund backward. BVB’s own mistakes helped enormously. Bellingham played one dangerous square pass directly into Díaz’s path early and Nmecha was caught inattentive around midfield soon thereafter. Neither midfielder succeeded in providing enough connection between Dortmund’s defensive and attacking lines. Guirassy consequently spent much of the first half receiving with his back to goal, attempting direct layoffs while the two attacking eights progressively disappeared from proceedings.
Bayern’s 28th-minute opener did not immediately expose some grand tactical defect. The sequence before the second goal did. Dortmund had their own throw-in shortly before halftime. Svensson attempted to advance the ball toward midfield when Kovač later revealed that he wanted his team to recycle possession backward and rebuild through the defensive line. Bellingham then surrendered possession and Michael Olise drove through to make it 2-0. Kovač’s irritation afterward was instructive. Dortmund had managed to transform their own restart into a Bayern counterattack.
That speaks rather neatly to the first-half issue. The formation itself had not failed. Dortmund had failed to manage possession safely enough inside it. There was another useful piece of evidence hiding on the flanks. Svensson had defended reasonably well from the unfamiliar right side, yet offered little going forward and appeared genuinely unsure which foot should finish Dortmund’s best open-play opportunity of the half. Ryerson, meanwhile, eventually struggled with Olise while playing from his unnatural left side. Kovač had spent pre-season proving that inverted wing-backs could work. Bayern provided the considerably less romantic reminder that tactical novelty still has to improve the players using it.
Hence came the first meaningful shift.
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At halftime, Svensson returned to the left and Ryerson to the right. More importantly, Giannis Konstantelias replaced Inácio in the left attacking half-space.
Lineup–BVB (46th minute)
The difference was immediate.
Konstantelias used only his second touch as a Dortmund player in competitive action to dribble at two Bayern defenders and win a useful free kick. Soon thereafter Karetsas crossed toward his countryman for an acrobatic effort. Konstantelias then fed Guirassy inside the penalty area before Karetsas forced Manuel Neuer into an excellent reaction save. The two Greeks were suddenly combining instead of merely existing on opposite sides of the same formation. Karetsas, who had faded badly as Dortmund lost control before halftime, sprang back to life. Konstantelias repeatedly attacked defenders, committed opponents and released teammates into the spaces that movement created.
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The “Odyssey Strategy” apparently improves substantially when both Greeks are allowed on the boat.
This was not solely a personnel change. Kovač later explained that Dortmund deliberately accepted more risk after halftime. They kept the ball more assertively, attacked with greater aggression and pushed more bodies forward. The 3-4-2-1 remained in place, but its interpretation became significantly less conservative. That distinction matters. Kovač did not need another formation. He needed the same one played with more courage and more creative quality.
Another change arrived shortly after the hour. Joey Veerman replaced Nmecha in central midfield, Maximilian Beier replaced Karetsas in the attacking line and Fábio Silva took over from Guirassy at centre-forward.
Lineup–BVB (63rd minute)
Veerman’s debut was relatively quiet, but the substitution itself matters for Dortmund’s developing hierarchy. Bellingham’s distribution produced several dangerous turnovers. Veerman appears to be the player expected to bring the deeper structure alongside Nmecha that Dortmund lacked against Bayern. Silva’s interpretation of the striker position produced a more immediate contrast. Guirassy had spent much of the first half pinned against Bayern’s defensive line with his back to goal. Silva dropped more frequently, moved into additional spaces and became more involved in combinations.
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The reward came in the 75th minute.
After Jonathan Tah surrendered possession, Konstantelias moved inward from the flank and drew the defensive focus with him. Svensson surged outside from his restored left-wing-back position. The Greek released the Swede, Svensson cut the ball across the penalty area and Silva finished. One final reshuffle arrived when Marcel Sabitzer replaced Ryerson. Beier, who had initially taken Karetsas’ attacking-half-space role, subsequently dropped a line deeper as Dortmund chased the equalizer.
Lineup–BVB (74th minute)
That also underlined Beier’s peculiar usefulness to Kovač. During preparation he had already appeared as an inverted wing-back and attacking midfielder. Here he shifted between the attacking and midfield lines during the same competitive match. He nearly provided the ultimate reward in stoppage time when Anton stepped forward and threaded him clean through on Neuer. Beier put the finish over the bar.
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The 1-2 defeat therefore provided a more useful scout than the scoreline initially suggests. Gadou’s first-half difficulties against Bayern’s pace showed that his rapid pre-season rise remains very much a developmental project. The inverted wing-back experiment made the jump from preparation to competition, but Bayern also exposed its limitations. The Nmecha-Bellingham midfield struggled to provide enough security or connection. Konstantelias instantly made his presence felt. Silva demonstrated an alternative interpretation of the No. 9 role.
Kovač’s 3-4-2-1 remains the framework. Dortmund are not searching for another system. They are searching for the right combinations inside this one. Against Bayern, the first version was too cautious, too error-prone and too easily disconnected. The second became quicker, braver and considerably more inventive once Konstantelias entered, the wing-backs returned to familiar territory and Kovač loosened the risk controls.
For once, Dortmund’s route to Ithaca may not require another ten years at sea. They might simply need to make sure both Greeks remain on the boat.
The system never really changed.
The quality—and the courage—inside it did.
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