After the 5-1 debacle in Dortmund, when home team BVB were taken apart by promoted VfB Stuttgart, the club leadership bowed to the inevitable and fired coach Lucien Favre, who had been in charge at the Signal Iduna Stadium since 2018. He was somewhat surprisingly kept on at the end of last season, when Dortmund’s title challenge petered out following the restart in May. However he was given the vote of confidence by Sport Director Michael Zorc, with the club stressing continuity at the time.
As ever though this is a results business and BVB’s simply haven't been good enough of late. Despite winning their group in the Champions League, their domestic form has been poor and the defeat against Stuttgart was their third home reverse on the trot. There are certain results that almost have to lead to a dismissal, particularly when a coach is already under pressure, and this was one of them, reminiscent of the sacking of Niko Kovacs at Bayern Munich last year after a thumping against Eintracht Frankfurt. Dortmund currently sit in 5th place, six points behind the new leaders Bayer Leverkusen and threatening to be cast adrift in the race for the title.
Edin Terzic has been promoted from the coaching staff to replace Favre. As a boyhood fan of the club, he is no doubt pinching himself at this turn of events. He is known to be more demonstrative than the rather laid back Favre and is thought to favour a more aggressive and fast paced type of football than has been seen of late in Dortmund. He has been appointed as caretaker coach for the rest of the season, at which time a permanent coach will be recruited. At the moment the clear favourite For that position is Marco Rose, currently in charge at Borussia Mönchengladbach, although he is under contract until 2022.
However a lot can change in six months and for now Terzic is the man in possession. This time last year Hansi Flick was put in caretaker charge at Bayern Munich, with a view to a permanent coach coming in a the end of the season. FCB then went on a fantastic run, won the Treble and Flick is still there, so who knows whether something similar may happen in Dortmund.
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