Having started the season with such positivity, things are unravelling at Borussia Dortmund. The hire of Marco Rose as coach was supposed to bring back the full-throttle football that Jurgen Klopp had once employed. A former teammate and friend of Klopp, Rose was touted as one of the next top coaches. However, the poor form shown at Borussia Monchengladbach after his announcement to leave has continued at Dortmund.

Though they sit second in the league, a combination of poor performances, set piece concessions, and big game collapses has some fans pretty worried. And to add to the headaches comes a spate of pretty serious injuries. It has been announced that star striker Erling Haaland is now set to be out up until Christmas.

Given the striker is almost certain to leave in 2022, despite his father Alfe-Inge being non-committal on an exit, this means precious months are being lost for Dortmund to enjoy Haaland while he is still there. The Norwegian is now set to join others like Dan-Axel Zagadou on the sidelines, with a recurring injury keeping him out. This will mean he is likely to miss the FC Bayern match-up in early December; given Dortmund’s shabby big game performances so far, this is a major concern for BVB.

However, with Haaland out until the festive break and with Dortmund set to play some huge domestic and European games, he could return to a team which is out of Europe, out of the league title race, and out of the domestic cup. With tough ties to come in the cup and with their UCL progression hanging by a thread, BVB are in a poor position.

An away game against RB Leipzig awaits at the weekend, and a loss there would likely signal the beginning of the end of a 2022 title charge.

Gio Reyna injured for the medium-term also

Another huge blow has come in the form of an injury to Giovanni Reyna. The USMNT star is out injured, and though he was expected to return soon it has been admitted the injury is ‘more serious’ than it was first hoped for. The hope is he will return to play before the end of 2022, but it is another star player missing for Dortmund. We hope to see good substitute which can show same level of football or better. There is a good example of that in EPL and Callum Hudson-Odoi who came on for the injured Timo Werner.

This leaves the club short on talent up front and relying on inconsistent players like Thorgan Hazard to keep things ticking over. The fact that big-price summer signing Donyell Malan has done precious little in a Dortmund shirt has exasperated the situation.

Dortmund won the DFB Pokal last year, but were not able to convince Jadon Sancho to stick around. With a likely empty trophy cabinet for 21-22, keeping other stars like Haaland, Reyna, and Jude Bellingham becomes harder.

The club has a thin squad, and a rather unbalanced team. Injuries can impact any side, but a growing number of injuries in key positions has exposed the frailty and imbalance of the squad even further. As it stands, it is hard to see BVB turning things around and staying in the hunt for trophies with so many injuries.