With Hofmann and Januzaj gone, does Dortmund have sufficient depth?

Dortmund's only activity in the transfer market thus far has been one outgoing transfer in Jonas Hofmann, and one overrated shipment back to England in Adnan Januzaj. With them, we had two wingers who could provide what we thought would sufficient cover for our first choice attack. Hofmann made a total of ten appearances this season, and the only game that anyone can really say he left a mark on was the Leverkusen game, when he converted a chance gifted to him by Bernd Leno's colossal screw-up.

As for Januzaj, he never got the chance to start a Bundesliga match. After Tuchel's comments where he said that Januzaj was never truly with us, you've got to imagine that the United "star" did nothing to show that he deserved a start. He made a total of 11 appearances for us, accumulating a non-superstar-like total of one assist. The only game he seemed worth something was against Hamburg, where he came on late and assisted Aubameyang's consolation goal. Considering the lack of playing time and production from these two players, it's unlikely we'll truly miss them.

However, one can be forgiven for thinking that these two departures leave us a little thin in the attacking positions. Gonzalo Castro is our only non-striker attacking midfielder that has previous top level experience. After starting off slowly, the former Leverkusen man was brought to life, and even sent Shinji Kagawa to the bench in the latter stages of the Hinrunde. He's earned himself 4 goals and 6 assists in 20 competitive appearances. Castro  is basically our equivalent to a 6th man in basketball, as he possesses all the quality to be a starter in our team, but he's just as useful when he comes on in place of someone else.

While having Castro as a back-up winger or attacking mid is a great asset, one must keep in mind that he was signed to be Ilkay Gundogan's replacement, meaning he also is back up to our deeper lying midfielders. While he's done all of his jobs brilliantly so far, we're one bad injury away from having no one with some experience to provide depth. On the bright side, the constantly injured Nuri Sahin seems to be nearing full fitness, and Klopp seems to have taken all the injuries with him to Liverpool, and our squad has been mostly healthy for the whole Hinrunde. The only notable injuries that occurred, happened to Marco Reus, who is now fit to have an explosive Ruckrunde. Whether it was a Klopp thing, or Tuchel's new training methods, the injury bug has not hit Dortmund hard yet. Knock on wood...

If we were to be hit hard by injuries in the second half, the promotions of 17 year olds Christian Pulisic and Felix Passlack indicate they'd be next in line behind Castro or Ramos to get a chance in the line-up. Ever since 2012, we haven't seen as many quality youngsters in our side. Pulisic, a number ten who could play any attacking midfield position, and Passlack, a jack-of-all-trades player who will see most of his time on the right flank, are a small glimpse into what is one of the most talent U19s team in Germany. It appears Tuchel looks ready to give them their shot, as he's come out and said that he's not a fan of January signings, which leads me to believe he wants to see what they can do.

If Tuchel were to bring anyone into the club, it'll almost certainly be another young player with potential. Oleksandr Zinchenko, a 19 year old Ukrainian playmaker who already visited Dortmund during one of their Europa League games, and Andrija Zivkovic, a 19 year old Serbian winger playing for Partizan (who are in loads of financial trouble), are the two hot names in the Borussia Dortmund transfer market. It wouldn't surprise me to see either of the two brought in, but we can't realistically expect them to contribute much to the team this year.

On the defensive side of things, we've got a solid amount of depth. With Matthias Ginter's emergence as a competent defender, it looks like that Neven Subutic's potential departure would hardly leave a mark. Sven Bender has seemingly took over Sokratis' spot as our partner to Mats Hummels, which leaves Subotic stuck as our fourth choice center half, which is quite unfair for a player of his quality. When given a chance against Wolfsburg, he performed well, and earned himself another start quickly after that. He's still a very useful player, and it'd be pretty damn selfish if Dortmund kept him here any longer against his will. With Liverpool's reported interest, it seems highly likely that he'll reunite with Klopp.

With Erik Durm returning to fitness, we have even more cover than we already do at our full back positions, giving Tuchel the opportunity to let someone win the job. As for goalkeeper, I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced that Burki is our goalkeeper of the future. He's made a gallery of mistakes this season, the goal when he was dispossessed against Paderborn, his two Bayern errors, his kick right to the striker against Koln... The list goes on. There's not much we can right now besides stick with him, but I would love to eventually see Loris Karius or Timo Horn at Dortmund next season, if it's at all possible.

All things considered, if we stay relatively injury free like we did in the Hinrunde, we should be able to avoid any depth related crises. However, if we do need to rotate big time or pick up a few injuries, we get the exciting prospect of seeing Christian Pulisic and Felix Passlack given their opportunities to impress for the first time on the big stage. As always, let's pray for no injuries and hope we can see our youngsters develop into the players we dream they can be.