Dortmund Match Preview: BVB start season vs very strong Monchengladbach side

It’s the first game of the Bundesliga season as we play Borussia Monchengladbach at home. The Westfalenstadion won’t be full this Saturday as COVID public health procedures will only allow 16,000 fans into the stadium. Still it will be nice to have fans back after playing the last part of 19-20 with no fans.

Favre has plenty of players to chose from for our first game back. I think that Favre will try to use the 3 back this game, and he should try it at the start. Hummels, Akanji and Can would be our best bets for the back three. BVB is light at CB position but hopefully Can can fit there nicely and Akanji can regain his form. Our wing backs will probably be Meunier and Hazard as it was on Monday. Both of them played well there, although I am concerned about Hazard playing there against tough opposition like BMG. The midfield will be a tough choice for Favre. He could roll back out Witsel-Bellingham like he did vs MSV. However I’m not sure if Jude is actually going to be in Farves best XI midfield yet. If its not Jude it will likely be Delaney playing alongside Witsel, although Favre could have Brandt fit in there as well. Up in front I’d expect Brandt, Sancho and Haaland. If Brandt is playing with Witsel in the CM spot, it probably means that Marco Reus is fit to start and he would feature in the front three.

BMG is still a very strong team. They lost no good players to transfers over the summer and while they didn’t make any big additions, they received Hannes Wolf on loan from Leipzig. Wolf probably won’t start on Saturday but he could be a dangerous option for manager Marco Rose off the bench. BMG managed to keep Ginter on their squad this summer despite a lot of rumors' about him heading to England. Since joining BMG, Ginter has been on of the best defenders of the league and is sure to give us some trouble.

With Zakaria out injured BVB do have a good chance of working their way centrally through the midfield, but if the way we played at the start against Duisburg is any indication we are probably going to try to break this game open with crosses into the box. With scoring threats like Embolo and Plea, BMG will be trying to do the same. Monchengladbach are the fourth best team in the league, our stars will have to show up if we are to walk away with three points. With Haaland and Sancho(and maybe Reus) the pace of this game could turn on a dime. However we must not forget that this BVB squad was also easily best last year. When the pace of game goes against them they often looked hapless. If Favre and the squad have not gotten that out of their system, they could be easily punished against a team like Monchengladbach.

SO what do you think the best lineup/gameplan s for Borussia Monchengladbach.