Can Ilkay Gündoğan step into Nuri Sahin’s boots at Borussia Dortmund next season?
Throughout the 2010/2011 Bundesliga campaign, there was no better midfielder in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Germany-c2904 than Turkish International Nuri Sahin. A dream campaign led the Turkish International to a Bundesliga winners medal for the first time with Borussia Dortmund. His consistently
fine performances earned him interest from abroad. On Monday, May 9, it was confirmed that the 22-year-old would be moving to Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid next season. The move means that Die Borussen would be without their midfield cornerstone.
The move alone has posed question marks over the future of the club. How will the newly-crowned German giants cope without the influential midfielder, and who would step into fill the void left by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nuri-Sahin-c28251?
Enter Nurnberg man, Ilkay Gündoğan.
Borussia Dortmund might have gotten a whiff that Sahin would eventually leave the club this summer. The management acted quickly and started a quick search for a replacement. Last week, it was confirmed that Yellow and Blacks had captured Ilkay Gündoğan.
The 20-year-old was once dubbed the ‘new Ozil’ but the youngster is more of a mixture of both Ozil and Sahin. As a box-to-box midfielder, Gündoğan tends to take deeper positions than Ozil. Moreover, Gündoğan is often found at the edge of the penalty box unlike
Sahin. This season, the youngster has shown that he is more of a goal threat than Mesut Ozil and has a great ability to take shoots from long range. However, the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/VfL-Bochum-c40880 man is a technically proficient player who excels in quick, flat-passing systems
– a system that Borussia Dortmund characterises.
Transformation of Gündoğan
The challenge that Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp would face next season would be converting the 20-year-old from a typical number 10, a trequartista, to a holding midfielder. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Turkey-c3026 scout and former Borussia Dortmund striker, Erdal Kesser, while
talking to Bild, branded the youngster as a more aggressive player than the departing Nuri Sahin.
The Dortmund newcomer naturally gravitates towards penalty box which might pose a few problems for Borussia Dortmund as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Shinji-Kagawa-c33364 is already fulfilling his duties in that role. The current system that Juergen Klopp has deployed at the club involves full-backs
to make forward runs, which required http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lucas-Barrios-c22533.
It is very likely that Juergen Klopp might make a few changes to the system that was so efficient this season. Sporting Director Michael Zorc admits that it would be hard to replace Nuri Sahin and was right on cue when he said, “Our playing style will change.”
It remains to be seen how BVB will change the system but it is clear that Juergen Klopp will definitely have his work cut out for the next season.
Pinning UEFA Champions League hopes on a 20-year-old player would surely be irresponsible and inviting danger for both the player and the club, especially if the player is forced to change his entire playing style. Sahin was at Dortmund for four years and
also spent a year on loan at http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Feyenoord-c39258 before he blossomed into a player that he is today. The newcomer Gündoğan might require even more time to reach his full potential. However, after having lost the mainstay of the team, Borussia Dortmund have done well
in finding a replacement. A promising talent would be seen at the Signal Iduna Park next season but expecting him to fit in the system perfectly in a matter of months would simply be too much to ask. Moreover, Ilkay Gündoğan would definitely not be the last
signing that Borussia Dortmund make in the upcoming summer transfer window.
Klopp has formulated the right winning combination with a group of young and talented players before. Fans must place their trust in the German tactician’s judgement and hope that the arrival of Gündoğan is another masterstroke by the tactical genius.
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