The Daily Bee (July 18th, 2018): BVB continue search for midfielder

• US-tour

Borussia Dortmund start their US-tour today when they arrive in Chicago. If you’re from the area your first chance to meet the team will be at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport (Terminal 5).

The black and yellows will arrive with a squad that is not yet at full strength but they will be closer to it when Marco Reus, Lukasz Piszczek and Achraf Hakimi join the team on Friday. According to Ruhrnachrichten 6 players from BVBII will join the first team on the tour to fill out the roster while some players are still absent after the World Cup: Eric Oelschlägel, Herbert Bockhorn, Sören Dieckmann, Tim Sechelmann, Dominik Wanner, Amos Pieper and Denzeil Boadu. Those 6 will have the opportunity to leave a lasting impression with new coach Lucien Favre and possibly secure a spot with the first team beyond just the pre-season.

• Toljan will stay (Sport Bild)

Throughout the summer there were rumors about a possible departure from Jeremy Toljan who just joined Dortmund last year. Recently he has been linked to Valencia and Napoli. However Toljan’s agent, Michael Decker, has confirmed to Sport Bild that he will stay in Dortmund and try to break into the squad: “Jeremy has decided to stay with Borussia Dortmund. He wants to take on the competition and try to establish himself. This has been discussed with the club.” At the same time he confirmed that there were offers from other Champions League clubs.

This probably means BVB won’t go after another fullback, except if one of the current ones would leave. Among BVB’s current fullbacks Raphael Guerreiro might be the only one who could leave this summer although rumors linking him to other clubs have significantly regressed.

• BVB interested in Pulgar (Sportbuzzer)

The Seri-deal fell through but Dortmund are still looking to add a central midfielder. According to Sportbuzzer BVB are currently looking at Erick Pulgar at the request of Lucien Favre himself. The 24-year-old defensive midfielder is currently playing for FC Bologna in Italy and was a starter for the club last season where they finished in 16th place in the Serie A. Pulgar is a Chilean international who won the 2016 Copa America with his country.

Dortmund has repeatedly been linked with central midfielders this summers which indicates that they are indeed looking to add another player for the position. However it is a bit surprising considering that it looks like Favre will play with a 4-4-2 formation that only employs two players in central midfield and BVB already have 8 players who can play this position. Nevertheless BVB could still create some room if a few players still leave the club (Sahin, Rode, Burnic), are planned for another position (Gomez, Götze) or in case of Julian Weigl might be out for longer than we initially thought.