The Daily Bee (January 20th, 2019): An uneven start for BVB

• Matchday 18

Erling Haaland, BVB’s new striker, was the star in BVB’s wild comeback win against FC Augsburg. Dortmund trailed 1:3 when Haaland came into the game but the striker scored a hattrick on his debut to secure three points to start the Rückrunde. It looks like BVB’s offense will be even more lethal with Haaland but the defense is still worrying. If Dortmund want to put up a title challenge they will need to improve.

RB Leipzig remain on top thanks to Timo Werner who scored a brace in their 3:1 win against Union Berlin. Bayern Munich are now in second place after their 4:0 win against Hertha BSC Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 0:2 loss to Schalke. Bayer Leverkusen, who won 4:1 against SC Paderborn, round out the top six.

At the bottom of the table Werder Bremen were able to win their duel with Fortuna Dèsseldorf and jump ahead of them in the table. SC Paderborn remain in last place.

• No offers for Alcacer (kicker)

Paco Alcacer did not even make the matchday squad against FC Augsburg on Saturday and Lucien Favre confirmed that it wasn’t because of an injury but rather the Spaniards performance in training. The arrival of Erling Haaland seems to have been a hard hit for Alcacer who would prefer a move back to Spain. Several outlets claimed Valencia would be interested to bring him back to La Liga but Michael Zorc confirmed to kicker that no club has inquired about him so far.

• BVB interested in Portuguese talent (A Bola)

Portuguese outlet A Bola claims Borussia Dortmund are the front-runners to sign Tomas Esteves. The 17-year-old right is currently under contract with FC Porto but he has a reported release clause of 10€ million. Esteves has so far not played for Porto’s first team but is considered a promising talent at the position.

As everybody knows BVB need to do something at right back this summer unless the club manages to hang onto Achraf Hakimi. However, the black and yellows already have Mateu Morey on the roster, if they are going to sign a player for the position it will probably be a more experienced fullback.