With Erling Haaland set to return to Borussia Dortmund for the first time today with new side Manchester City, the hole the striker left behind is plain to see.
While Dortmund moved to plug their leaky defence in the off-season by bringing in likely Germany World Cup centre-back pairing Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Suele, the team has struggled up front since the giant Norwegian’s departure.
Haaland scored 86 goals in 89 games in all competitions with Dortmund and has hit the ground running in England.
In the Premier League alone this season, Haaland has scored 17 goals in just 11 appearances with City.
That figure is just one less than Dortmund’s entire season tally of 18 in the Bundesliga – five of which were scored in Saturday’s domination of manager-less Stuttgart.
The Stuttgart game however may show a way forward for Dortmund, by encouraging them to rely more heavily on their troupe of talented teenagers.
Dortmund’s three best players in their dominant 5-0 home win over Stuttgart – Englishman Jude Bellingham, American Gio Reyna and German Youssoufa Moukoko – have a combined age of 55 and scored four of the side’s five goals.
Bellingham has been Dortmund’s most important player this season, having played every minute of every game other than a stint on the bench in Wednesday’s Cup game against Hannover.
Bellingham’s game has gone to another level since being named Dortmund captain in early October, having scored five goals in the club’s past six games – including in every Champions League game this season.
After helping Dortmund to their biggest Bundesliga win of the season on Saturday, sporting director Sebastian Kehl lauded the teenager’s influence.
“For us, he was again the one who steers the game in the right direction,” Kehl said of Bellingham after the game.
Today’s Fixture
Salzburg vs. Chelsea
Sevilla vs. Copenhagen
Benfica vs. Juventus
Celtic vs. Shakhtar
Dinamo Zagreb vs. AC Milan
Dortmund vs. Man City
PSG vs. Maccabi Haifa
RB Leipzig vs. Real Madrid
