Borussia Dortmund: what went wrong for Lucien Favre, & is Marco Rose next?

Borussia Dortmund finally dismissed Lucien Favre after their 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Stuttgart at the weekend. What went wrong, and who’s next for them?

And so, the Lucien Favre era at Borussia Dortmund is over.

The surprising thing was that it lasted as long as it was, as Rafa Honigstein pointed out on The Totally Football Show this week.

“If there had been any viable candidate out there, Favre would have gone earlier.”

The final straw was the 5-1 horsing at the hands of Stuttgart over the weekend, but a result like that had been coming.

“This latest bad run is really just a spark, or the reason he got fired. There are more underlying structural issues that have been a problem with him.

“I think that culturally it’s always been a bit of a misfit. Dortmund are a club that lives off the emotions of the crowd, they have a certain way of playing with young players. And while Favre did a lot of good work with those young players when it came to developing them and helping them, the team often played a very low tempo, quite intricate – over-intricate – style, which if there had been fans in more games would’ve caused a bit of an uproar.

“When you combine that with a lack of defensive stability and Dortmund being so vulnerable to counter-attacks as they were against Stuttgart when they were basically taken apart, it makes for a lot of unhappiness and disquiet.

“The initial plan was to somehow see out the season then make the big change. But the form had been so bad, and the statements from Marco Reus and Mats Hummels after the game, basically saying “we’re a team who is good at some things but we can’t defend”, and “all we do is pass it around in small spaces and lose it in difficult areas.” These where almost cries for help that the board heard and felt they had to pull the plug.”

“As much as Favre was a nice guy and well-respected, Dortmund didn’t have any choice.

So who’s next?

“I think in the summer they’ll go for a bigger name, & the name mostly mentioned is Marco Rose.”

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