The Daily Bee (December 20th, 2018): Who will play on defense for BVB?

• Matchday 16

Matchday 16 won’t be one to remember for BVB fans, the black and yellows picked up their first loss on Tuesday while their two biggest rivals, Gladbach and Bayern, both won their games which means Dortmund’s lead got cut to six points.

Neither RB Leipzig nor Eintracht Frankfurt could win their games which means there is already a gap between the top 3 and the rest. VfL Wolfsburg are back in the top 6 thanks to a streak of five unbeaten games in a row (4 wins).

In the relegation battle there are mostly clubs which were expected to be there when the season started like Nürnberg, Hannover and Düsseldorf but both Stuttgart and Schalke are surprisingly still a part of that group.

• BVB’s defensive woes

During a press conference yesterday Lucien Favre confirmed that both Manuel Akanji and Abou Diallo picked up injuries in Tuesday’s loss against Fortuna Düsseldorf. Neither of them should miss an extended period of time, they have enough time to recover because of the winter break but they will still miss Friday’s game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

This means BVB will only have one healthy centerback available for the game in Ömer Toprak, Dan-Axel Zagadou was already injured. Lucien Favre will have to get creative on defense against one of the best offenses in the Bundesliga.

Daily Buzz: How should BVB line-up in defense against Gladbach with Akanji, Diallo and Zagadou all out? Switch to a back three with Schmelzer, Toprak and Piszczek or stay with a back 4 with either Piszczek, Weigl Delaney or a youth player like Amos Pieper playing at centerback?