Alrighty, I'm not here to mindlessly stand up for my team, I am just wondering what exactly the scope of your statement is and what you base it on. What do you think the ambition of the team is and where do you believe they fall short? There is plenty to criticize but I am just curious where you see the deficiencies and how exactly they are "lucky" to play to their strengths or the weaknesses of their opposition (aimed at your complaint BL teams are not properly defending high balls).
I think what is being got at is how they are a “FIFA team”. They are everyone’s second favourites because they have the big name youth and the FIFA crowd love that. You just need to look at how much Sancho is mentioned around here.
The fact is though, that in recent years, they have set themselves up as the team where you either a) go to make your name (Sancho, Haaland, Zagadou) or b) return to after your peak or failed move elsewhere, or you’re a journeyman to start with. (Hummels, Gotze, Witzel). There are obviously exceptions to this and those players could be classified as those not quite good enough for the giants of Europe.
As such a big club with a massive fan base and flashy names, people tune in expecting to see a proper rival for Bayern to make the league more exciting. What we get in reality is a team that is constantly in transition and relies on young players, who, while exciting at times, will more often than not lack consistency.
I sympathize because it is a valid route for a team that doesn’t have the financial muscle to compete with a giant like Bayern, but at the same time, it has placed Dortmund firmly in the position of “selling club”, and means that players like Haaland can’t spend 6 months there before very real discussion of their next club is taking place.
Their challenge, therefore, isn’t a serious one to Bayern, who have a squad of world class players at their peak and only ever sell players they don’t want anymore.
