Match Preview: Dortmund Look For A Quick Start To The Season Against Mainz

The first Bundesliga game of the season is nearly upon us, as we take on Mainz in Signal Iduna Park.

Mainz brought in a good amount of players this summer but also lost some important pieces. Their first choice goalkeeper Loris Karius went to Liverpool this summer and their holding midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger went to Leverkusen. Mainz still has important attacking pieces like Yunus Malli and Yoshihiro Muto, both of whom were some of the most dangerous attacking players in the league last year. Mainz was also one of the best defensive teams last year so they will be no easy target the first day of the season

As for BVB, they tweeted their expected lineup that leaves a lot of questions to be answered.

These aren't always correct and who knows if the social media guy who made this talked to Tuchel at all but this is not expected. If this is our first choice lineup I have no idea what Tuchel is planning. No Julian Weigl in the starting lineup makes me very nervous, either he has a knock that's not been announced or Tuchel doesn't think he’s above Rode in the depth chart. Also Felix Passlack starting at right back is an interesting choice as well. Our attack still looks very dangerous with Dembele in Mkhi’s old spot and Schurrle in for the injured Reus. Kagawa is starting again which is nice to see after he lost his spot last season but that leaves Gotze on the bench. Also this may not be our first team. Bartra is the only person there that played time this summer, so maybe Tuchel wants more rest for those guys. We are so deep Tuchel may just play mixed lineups against all mid level opponents the whole season. If that's the case he’ll definitely inherit the “tinkerman” nickname from Claudio Ranieri.

BVB may stumble this game with a new lineup in a new season. We’ll prob just manage to nab the 3 points in the end. Or we'll run wild like we did against BMG last year. That would be nice eh?