The arrival of Süle is a clear signal that Borussia must be considered a title contender, comes from the Dortmund fan club. How do they assess the current season?

Dortmund are having an interesting season under Marco Rose. Eleven games from the end of the Bundesliga season, they are six points behind first-placed Bayern. In addition, they have brought Niklas Süle over from Bayern and have to deal with the future of Erling Haaland. Vojtech Kryštof, a member of the official Schwarz-Gelbe Bienen fan club, spoke to Ruik about the Borussia situation.

Borussia Dortmund were taken over as new coach by Marco Rose before the season and so far he is not doing badly at all. How do you feel about his tenure after six months? What has he changed? What does he do differently than Favre? Can he lead Dortmund to success?

I would start by answering the very last question. In my opinion, Marco Rose can win some trophies. But the important factor will be the support of the management. If he brings in quality reinforcements, I dare say nothing will be impossible.

For now, the performance is a roller coaster. We are capable of dominating a good opponent, but also of losing. This is the biggest stumbling block so far. It’s true that the coach has had a lot of work to do with coming up with lineups, as we’ve practically never had a completely healthy squad. Often we are missing at least five players and it is then several times harder to lead the team to the desired results.

Despite dropping out of the Champions League group and the DFB Pokal, I rate Rose’s first half of the year positively. As I mentioned above, we had a lot of injuries, and yet we are still trailing Bayern by a fairly narrow margin. It seems to me that unlike Favre, his tactics are not based on ball possession. Pressing is a key element in his tactics and we always try to get to the opposition goal as quickly as possible after winning the ball.

How do you rate this season? Bayern have been losing points in the league, with Dortmund only six points behind. But there was a rather early exit from the cup..

It could have been worse. I don’t need to reminisce about the distant past, because last season we fought almost until the very last round to qualify for the Champions League group stage. The early exit from the cup is perhaps even more disappointing than the disgrace of the millionaire competition. Last year we showed that we are capable of winning and putting in good performances in this competition, which unfortunately we didn’t confirm this year and deservedly finished after the St. Pauli game.

In the Bundesliga we are still in contention for the title and even Bayern are not unbeatable. Mönchengladbach regularly shows it, and recently also Bochum and Salzburg. There is certainly still some hope of winning the title.

Champions League participation is already over in the groups, what ambitions does Dortmund have for the Europa League? How does the club perceive this “failure”?

Failure will be anything but winning the competition. Having dropped out of the group where we were clearly the strongest team on paper, winning the Europa League is a must. We will face very good opponents, no doubt about it, but given Barcelona’s current state of mind I see the yellow and black as favourites to win the trophy, despite the first round blunder against Rangers.

How do you rate the arrival of Donyell Malen so far? He came in as a great attacking talent, but he hasn’t confirmed his reputation yet.

The transfer of Donny has been a slight disappointment so far. He came for 30 million euros, and that’s not exactly a small sum. But at PSV he showed he can score goals. It’s only a matter of time before he proves it here. After all, he plays in a different competition and, after all, in a different position in a different system. At PSV he was the main star, kicking penalties and playing in a two-man attack in a 4-4-2 formation.

Now he plays from the left wing, where he has a lot more defensive duties, which he does well. What you definitely can’t deny him is his combativeness and hard work. If he keeps it up, the goals will come.

Two topics in particular have been discussed recently. First of all, the future of Erling Haaland. Is there any chance of Dortmund keeping him? If not, who could replace him?

Nowhere is it written that Erling will leave in the summer, so there is also the possibility that he could stay in Westphalia. Haaland is a player that will be hard to replace, but I’m of the opinion that no one is irreplaceable. A few years ago nobody knew about him and now he is one of the best players on the planet, he has broken several records and will break many more.

If Malen or Moukoko would follow in his footsteps at least partially, it would be great. There is also a lot of speculation about the transfer of youngster Adeyemi, again from Salzburg to BVB for a change. None of these three strikers are said to be replacements for Haaland.

Personally, after a long time I would like to see a Czech wearing the Borussia jersey, so my choice would be Patrik Schick.

The second topic is of course the arrival of Niklas Süle, who will arrive for free from rival Bayern Munich in the summer. Borussia have reportedly managed to overpay Bayern. How will he fit into Dortmund’s system? What led Borussia to make this signing?

Dortmund have long had problems defensively. That was probably the biggest signal to bring in a quality stopper. After that, it was up to the management to take advantage of the situation. Süle is a very experienced player, has won several trophies, and he comes for free and from Bayern. Another positive is that Bayern will lose their leader of the defence.

For us, I would like him most in the middle of a three-man defence, but that depends mainly on the next behaviour in the transfer market. He would certainly help us a lot now, but unfortunately we can only count on him from the summer.

And finally on the overpaying thing, that’s not quite true. Süle will receive a salary of 8 million euros. I think Bayern offered him similar money. He also got offers from abroad, where he would earn a lot more.

It also begs the question whether Borussia are not sending a signal of sorts to Bayern with this transfer. Could this be a harbinger of a very interesting transfer period in the summer and an attempt to dethrone the Bavarian side?

It’s a clear signal that Dortmund should be counted as a title contender. We still won’t be favourites, there’s no doubt about that, but with a quality addition to the squad, we could put up a good fight for the title with Bayern and maybe even end their dominance.

But it’s too early to predict next season. This season is not over yet either, where Borussia will do everything they can to topple Bayern already this season. It’s still possible, 6 points can be lost in two weeks.