Jurgen Klopp faces huge tactical calls in another ‘rebuilding’ season at Borussia Dortmund

Mario Gotze’s departure has left a gaping hole at Dortmund.

Lewa’s impending departure has allowed Klopp to act quickly in the market, and the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from AS Saint-Etienne and the announcement of a deal for the impressive Mkhitarayan from Shakthar is indeed encouraging.

Neither of the aforementioned duo were household names in world football before a couple of seasons back, or in fact some might claim that they aren’t so even now. But the arrival of these two are definitely going to affect Dortmund’s style.

Aubameyang, a Milan youth who spent most of his time out on loan, is predominantly a central striker with a tendency to attack from the wings at times. His lanky frame ensures him enough pace to beat the quickest in the opposition. His finishing is no doubt precise and as any other watcher of his YouTube video will agree with me, he often shows traits of unselfishness in setting up the onrushing midfielder/winger.

This point comes as the key when we look at Klopp’s recent signing of Mkhitarayan. The ex-Shakhtar player’s capture from the grasps of Liverpool is going to be major wake-up call for the Merseysiders but that is another article in itself, but the £22 million signing shows promise.

He has 24 goals in his last 28 games from an attacking midfield position. Apart from being almost Goetze-esque in his deft flicks and through balls, Mkhitarayan’s finishing is what separates him from others of his ilk..

Though Mkhitarayan and Aubameyang will be interesting additions to the Dortmund setup and an influx of extra goals is a certainty, both their styles is going to cause a bit of stirring to the current setup.

Klopp’s tendency of arrowing his attack towards one flank while pressing wingers forward on the other, does not leave much scope for a No.10 to attack directly at goal. And pretty certainly, players like Reus and Gundogan would not be preferred as the No.10 if Mkhitarayan is in the squad.

Also this would mean that Klopp now functions with a striker who likes the ball played over the defence and space to run at, rather than Lewa’s style of falling back and allowing Reus or Goetze to rush in on goal. With Aubameyang looming higher up at the edge of the defence line and Mkhitarayan also playing in an advanced hole position, Marco Reus’s position on the left becomes very interesting.

If the German survives the rumoured interest from Real Madrid, playing him on the left flank would make Klopp play Gundogan and Bender pretty flat to adjust such an attacking quartet upfront.

While attack remains the order of the day, Dortmund’s back four remains my personal favourite of the year. The duo of Hummels and Subotic are majestic in the air and in grounded tackles, and other than the not-so-rare mistakes by Hummels, there is no need to voluntarily change the duo.

A constant threat of Barca bidding for Hummels has forced Klopp to bring in Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and treating him as a replacement for the departing Filepe Sanatana would be a better option.

Right-back Pisczchek will be out of action for the initial months with a hip problem, and his menacing presence on the flanks will be major miss. Veteran stopper Roman Weidenfeller has been nothing short of brilliant this season.

The one concern that Klopp might have identified is the left-back Schmelzer’s erroneous tendency of rushing forward to attack the opposition winger, which leaves a huge gap between him and Hummels.

Jurgen Klopp’s resolve in this Dortmund project seems to be really genuine as the German was barely tempted in the absurdly huge flip-flop of managers this summer.

What stands as a season of major rebuilding for Klopp, the most interesting aspect lies as how will he incorporate the strengths of two totally different sorts of attackers into his system of pressing and counter-attacks.