Season starts, Dortmund is ready.

I'll take a quick look on the foundations we need for a very challenging season. So here we go.

Spirit

The cup has shown, that my loved Borussia has what it takes after a title winning season.

Mental edge. In a post-match-interview Sebastian Kehl was asked "This looked pretty easy!?" 

His answer was a statement of our philosophy. "No, it was hard work."

Laying foundations for a season does not only mean getting in a good physical shape (which, of course, we achieved),

but also gaining mental fitness. The will to win is always game deciding in sport! The more you got, the better.

Dortmund has it.

Soft skills become more and more important in modern football, the quality of football clubs in Bundesliga becomes more and more balanced and chemistry on and off the pitch can often makes the difference.

But what means "will to win?"

First, every individual player needs it until you can say "This team has the spirit to win!".

It means to go over your limits, when it's needed to be. Keep your focus up over 90 minutes on high a heartbeat/minute level. It means that you want o make the extra (probably useless) run, to create space, attack.

It means you can only play for Dortmund if you are greedy until the final whistle has blown and you are always ready to go beyond your limits week after week.

It is an open secret that Dortmund's team spirit plays a huge part in their success. Klopp said "It's more important to have a harmonizing and functioning team with weaker players than having a team full of better, but disharmonious players." Also a reason why Man City is crap. A real team with harmony and friendship is something you can't buy. You have to choose your characters wisely and hope it grows. A process that hapenned/happens in Dortmund and creates identification and joy, also better working conditions for players and staff.

But BVB has also a temporal advantage: Confidence.

It's a result of our success and will carry us through the next months (at least). 

You can only play your best football if you know, that you can play your best football and don't start to 'think'. Everyone knows that.

That doesn't mean that we underestimate our opponents or take any game easy, if you were hoping for that.

Vollgasfußball

Jürgen Klopp's philosophy is "Vollgasfußball" (full-throttle football).

It's focused on the play without the ball and the transmission when gaining the ball and again the transmission when losing the ball - and everything as quick as possible. In other words it means you are always running.

Step 1.

When the Opponent has the ball, you chase him and press him like there's no tomorrow. (running)

Step 2. 

You finally gain the ball. Now it's your job to run forward to outnumber your opponent.

Step 3. 

You created a great counter attack with a marvelous combination and found an even more awesome way to waste your glorious chance.

Step 4. 

The opponent has possession now, it's your job now to think defensively. Bring bodies behind the Ball ASAP,

get your defensive structure in tact and start over with step 1. 

So where is the pause? ... Exactly. (That's why fitness and greed are so important)

A little video that captures all that pretty good.

Get ready for Plan B

That is usually how Dortmund played and scored goals last season, but this season might be a whole lot different, since opponents will try "to park the bus". I expect many teams to play with two deep-lying defensive lines that will focus on destroying our combinations and place (as we call it in German) "needle stitches".

Good thing we have Kagawa and Götze, who can split up defenses with their individual skill and

Wing-backs that overlap and go forward to the base line to create width.

Bad thing Dortmund had some problems with very defensive minded opponents, as losses in Hoffemheim and Gladbach prove, so I hope Klopp has worked on that during preseason.

A system called 'variety'

Dortmund will face a season with international football, so depth and rotation

will be key elements of this season (unlike last's, where Klopp tried to rotate a minimum possible [never change a winning team]).

A player who wants to play for Dortmund has to fulfill different criteria, flexibility is one of them. And a very important one.

Gündogan for example was signed for the defensive midfield-role, but can also play in offensive midfield,

same counts for Moritz Leitner, and Ivan Perisic can also play on the left side, right side + defensive mid.

Kagawa and Götze both can play on every position in the offensive midfield (they will probably often switch postions during a match), Götze also can play in the creative-minded def-midfielder role.

Kevin Großkreuzt (my personal favorite in this) can play as a right/left-winger but also can play as a right or left back (and pretty good at that. Awesome, right?

Oh, I forgot to mention Julian Koch (injured for at least the first half of the season) who can play literarily everywhere.

So there is a lot of competition going on within the squad, something that Klopp wanted, so nobody will take a little "we are champions-break". (Something that is very important as we have learned from Bayern last season).

The system is not based on individual players, but every player knows his role/roles in the system and the ones of the others. This is a huge quality which allows Dortmund to rotate players without changing the System. Will be even more important when "Key-players" are injured.

A phenomena that was great to observe during friendlies. Klopp just exchanged 7 or more players but the quality didn't dip recognizably. (Liga Total Cup 2nd Half = perfect example)

Kuba, Zidan, Leitner, Perisic, Lewandowski, Kehl, Da Silva etc. will probably all enjoy a lot of playing time this season, even though they might not be in the standard starting XI.

Verdict

I'm pretty confident that Dortmund has it what it takes to go into the next season, and fulfills all the above mentioned points. I can't wait to watch the boys battling through the season with breath-taking, pacy, skillful football.