Dortmund v Tottenham is an Immensely Intriguing Contest

Thursday’s match between Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur will, regardless of the outcome, be a heck of a romp.

Strip away all of the context – the two sides’ favorite statuses in the Europa League, their pursuit of their respect league titles, the desperate need to rest key players – and this is set to be a battle between two of the most ambitious and innovative projects happening in European football right now.

We all know about Mauricio Pochettino and his ambitions at Tottenham. It’s only his second year with the club, but the amount of change and improvement the club has undergone in that short time period is notable. He’s revamped not only the tactics of the squad itself, but also the entire club’s transfer and development policies. Pochettino is a manager with a genuine long term vision for the club, and we’ve only just seen the beginning.

In that respect, Dortmund isn’t too different.

Coach Thomas Tuchel only took over at the club in the summer, replacing outgoing coach Jürgen Klopp. Prior to his move he’d plied his trade over five seasons at Mainz and while there had built a reputation throughout Germany as the next-big-thing.

A year-long hiatus from the game following his departure from Mainz inspired speculation that he would be Pep Guardiola’s heir apparent at Bayern Munich, but when the opportunity to take over at Dortmund came he jumped at the chance.

Over the few years before Tuchel’s arrival, Klopp’s Dortmund has been the only club in the Bundesliga to regularly challenge Bayern’s hegemony over the league. They won the title in 2011/12 and 2011/12 before facing off against Bayern in the Champions League final in 2013.

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That momentum couldn’t be sustained however. Dortmund settled for runners-up in each of the next two seasons before experiencing a borderline disastrous season last time out. Though they managed to recover and qualify for the Europa League by the end of the season, Klopp’s time with the club was up. He left at the end of the season.

All of which is to say that the team that Tuchel took over wasn’t too far removed from one who could stand toe-to-toe with one of the biggest entities in club football. Recognizing that, he’s declined to make any drastic changes to the system Klopp instilled, instead choosing to trust the players to know how to play their best game. The results have been fantastic: Dortmund currently sit in second place, sixteen places from third and only give from Bayern in first.

Tottenham, of course, are also only five points away from the league leaders – though they haven’t quite been able to separate themselves from the rest of the pack quite as effectively as Dortmund.

What’s more, the style Pochettino has Tottenham play in is – in principle – virtually the same as the style Tuchel has Dortmund play. Klopp’s primary influence at Dortmund and world football as a whole was the concept of gegen-pressing, literally “counter-pressing.” When without the ball, have your team close down and hassle opponents until it is retrieved. When that happens, make sure you’re in an ideal position to transition back into attack and catch the opposing defense out of sorts.

It’s a style that Dortmund have been built around for years – in much the same way that Tottenham is building itself around a similar concept of the game now – so Tuchel has been wise not to diverge dramatically from it. His team might not play with quite the ferocity of Klopp’s teams, but they retain that same ability to ruthlessly punish opposition mistakes.

As does Tottenham, of course. And that’s what is set to make Thursday’s first leg of the two sides’ Round of 16 matchup so intriguing. While the pressing style is increasingly in vogue in the Bundesliga, Tottenham rarely sees it that much in the Premier League or elsewhere.

When they have – most notably in the 2-1 loss to Anderlecht in the Europa League group stage and last week’s 1-0 loss to West Ham – they have not cooped particularly well. While virtually all of Tottenham’s squad knows how to press and do it particularly well, when faced with the task of overcoming an opposition doing the same they tend to look overwhelmed.

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A trip to Westfalenstadion will likely be the truest and biggest test of this potential chink in Tottenham’s armor. How Pochettino will plan around Dortmund – especially while he’s likely obliged to give a rest to some key players – is a genuine mystery.

Tomorrow we’ll look at options that have worked against Dortmund in the past as well as what chances Tottenham will have to press their own advantages against the hosts.

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