Who will play in the derby against Schalke alongside Julian Brandt: Thomas Delaney or Mahmoud Dahoud? After prominent retirements, Lucien Favre is looking for the new BVB centrepiece.
In the past they were the heart of BVB – but now Emre Can and Axel Witsel (both suspected to have a fibre tear) are cancelled for the ghost derby against Schalke on Saturday!
Coach Lucien Favre must now inevitably rebuild his defensive control centre. Only: who comes into question? The Swiss doesn’t exactly have a big choice.
The choice will therefore probably be between Thomas Delaney and Mahmoud Dahoud. It is considered certain that one of the two will play alongside top man Julian Brandt (three goals, three assists).
In the current Bundesliga season, BVB has already played in the double six with seven different variants. Witsel and Delaney played six games and thus made the most, with Witsel/Can and Witsel/Brandt each playing five games. Other variations so far have been Witsel/Julian Weigl (three times), Weigl/Brandt (three times), Witsel/Dahoud (two times) and Weigl/Dahoud (once).
Witsel’s retirement hits BVB hard
The most successful constellations this season were Can/Witsel and Witsel/Brandt, which each scored 2.50 points on average.
At the beginning of the season, however, the Witsel/Delaney combination had emerged as the regular double six. The duo was convincing over long distances and the bosses liked it too.
After the 4-0 win against Leverkusen on Matchday 4, when Delaney made his starting eleven debut, head of sports Michael Zorc was full of praise: “Today I want to give Thomas special praise. He felt he has fought 200 duels and won 210. He did it brilliantly.”
A short time later, Delaney was injured.
Injury throws Delaney back
You have to go back a long way to find out when the Dane played his last compulsory match for black and yellow: on 26 October 2019. Of all things, the 43-time national team player ran up alongside Witsel for 74 minutes in the first leg of the derby against Schalke.