As the 2025-26 season begins to take shape, Borussia Dortmund have settled into a trend that is quite unfamiliar. For a club that has so much history of attack-minded football, it’s been on the defensive
where Niko Kovac and his men have found success. Dortmund’s seven goals and 9.4 expected goals conceded are both second best in the league, very close behind Bayern Munich in first place. The offense has been another story.
Dortmund have only scored 16 goals in 10 matches so far. Seven clubs in the Bundesliga have scored more this season. Bayern have scored more than twice as many. Last season, Dortmund scored 71 goals. This season, they’re on pace for around 54. They are on pace for their worst offensive season since the disastrous 2014-15 campaign. This is not due to bad luck or poor finishing, either. In fact, BVB are overperforming their xG by a very slight margin.
There are many reasons for this, and I won’t go into all of them. I think Niko Kovac has coached much more conservatively this season, and that is definitely a key factor. It’s not all on the coach, though. Dortmund have spent a lot of money on attackers over the last few summers, and many of them are not performing to the standards expected of them. While there is blame to go around, I believe that the biggest culprit this season is Maximilian Beier.
Beier arrived in Dortmund two seasons ago for a few of slightly less than €30 million. The season before he arrived, he had scored 16 goals for Hoffenheim. Last season, he got off to a very slow start but ultimately finished with a respectable eight goals and five assists in only around 1,500 minutes. He seemed to be on a decent upward trajectory, which makes his performances this season all the more underwhelming. He only has two goals and one assist in the league, despite playing almost 600 minutes.
He’s not creating anything for other players either. He only has eight key passes (passes that lead to a shot), which puts him 10th on the squad. He only has one assist. He’s not even progressing the ball. He has four passes into the final third, which other than Fabio Silva and Cole Campbell, is last on the team. He’s 10th in progressive carries, behind such dribbling dynamos as Waldemar Anton. He’s 15th in progressive passes. He only has 5 successful take-ons. His pass completion rate is 69.5%, which means almost every third pass he plays is a turn-over. That, again, is last on the team.
These are not good numbers. Players such as Karim Adeyemi and Carney Chukwuemeka might not be scoring buckets of goals this season, but they are doing other things on the ball that at least have the potential to lead to chances. I really can’t tell what Maxi Beier is doing on the pitch at the moment. He isn’t scoring goals, he isn’t creating chances for other players, he’s not contributing in the build-up. His one major moment this season, his last-minute winner against FC Cologne, was epic, but it was really the only one.
There are many players who need to be better for Borussia Dortmund, but if the BVB’s offensive struggles are to end, then Maxi Beier needs to step up. The club’s transfer window this summer and shallow squad mean that there is no room in the squad for passengers. If Beier can’t improve, then Dortmund will continue to struggle to find the back of the net.
