Niko Kovač appears to be feeling the heat at Borussia Dortmund.
The Black and Yellows have flattered one day and faltered the next this season — much as in previous years. Dortmund sits second in the table, closing in on a respectable but not inspiring points total, and the brand of football on offer under Kovač has drawn its share of critics.
The chatter has set the second-year coach once again on the defensive.
“I ask you: Who – besides Bayern Munich – consistently plays attractive football in the
Bundesliga? And is attractiveness more important than success?” Kovač mused in comments for Frankfurter Allgemeine, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “You have to understand that the Bundesliga isn’t a theater stage where every performance is the same; much is unpredictable. Almost no club offers its fans four goals and spectacular attacking football every week.
“I think we’ve certainly shown some very good and attractive football this season. What we might be lacking a bit is what Bayern have in abundance. They have an incredibly strong squad with many exceptional individual players. This season, they’ve managed to combine attractiveness with success particularly well. 113 goals in 31 games is extraordinary. Not even the richest clubs in England can currently match that. That has to be acknowledged without envy.”
BFW Commentary
Kovač really is not wrong. To state the obvious, Bayern’s attacking output this season has been special. However, the former Eintracht Frankfurt boss has also been at the Bayern post before — and the memory that lingers is the performance of a squad that, in the season he was sacked, demonstrated shortly after just how much abundance they had by winning a Champions League with Hansi Flick.
Dortmund lost again this week, a 1-0 result to mid-table Borussia Mönchengladbach. Clearly, the club needs a lot of things to turn around. Where should it start — the players or the coach?
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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