Raphael Honigstein: Borussia Dortmund are underachieving under Lucien Favre

BT Sport pundit Raphael Honigstein gave his views on the current state of play in the Bundesliga...

When the Bundesliga got the green light to return, there were people thinking this is crazy, coronavirus is still a big problem, there will be positive tests among players and the fixture list will be a huge mess. To be fair, it could still happen, I hope not, but halfway through this resumption it looks like they can pull it off.

The Bundesliga were trailblazers for all other leagues looking to come back. A lot of people were rooting for the Bundesliga but, at the same time, if they couldn’t pull it off, it would have been very difficult to get any confidence in the other leagues coming back.

Of course you want the crowds back but the actual football isn’t much worse than before - we’re talking maybe a couple of percentage points. That has vindicated the league’s decision to come back.

The quality in the Bundesliga has been excellent this year and it now looks a much happier dressing room at Bayern Munich under Hansi Flick.

Things had become a little fraught under Niko Kovac, who wasn’t giving the team what they needed in terms of tactics. Flick has found a formation and starting 11 that he has settled on and, most crucially, Bayern are playing a pressing game which brings out the best in the team.

You don’t want this Bayern team to be sitting in their own half, waiting for things to happen and having 50 metres ahead of them when they win the ball back. You want them to win the ball high up the pitch and that’s what they’ve done under Flick.

Everyone has thrived. Individually and collectively the performances are at the level which we really haven’t seen since Pep Guardiola left so it really is testament to the team that they’re back at this level now.

The players have started shining individually again under Flick and Thomas Muller is a prime example.

He is a key player again. Under Kovac he was out, not playing for six weeks in a row and being used as an impact substitute. Now he’s at the heart of this team and leading the line, not so much in terms of position but in being the first player to press.

Bayern were vulnerable in the first half of the season but Dortmund bottled it, getting only 30 points from their first 17 games. The team has been closer than ever before, certainly since the Jurgen Klopp era, and the squad depth is remarkable but I think Dortmund have been underachieving under Lucien Favre.

In theory, people think that with a more energetic and motivational manager they would have been able to utilise the potential at the club more.

They’ve dropped too many points - you can lose to Bayern narrowly as they did but what you can’t do is play a 3-3 draw against Paderborn and fail to beat Leipzig in a game where they were the better side.

I personally think they need a better manager. They had a great chance this season and they should have taken it, so I understand why the fans are disappointed.

Bundesliga stars to be in demand this summer

Jadon Sancho, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz are all players with excellent quality and are obviously attracting big interest.

Werner scores the goals for Leipzig, Sancho scores and creates goals for Dortmund - he’s been unbelievably consistent this year - and Havertz runs the show at Bayer Leverkusen.

These are three players who are all growing but these clubs are probably not their final destinations which is why there’s been a lot of talk about possible transfer situations.

Werner is reportedly on the verge of joining Chelsea - his price is comparatively cheap, even in coronavirus terms, with a release clause of €60 million - I think he’s a bargain.

The others have the problem that they are very valuable in a depressed market. I don’t think Dortmund nor Leverkusen will say you know what we will sell our prize assets in this market for a reduced figure.

They are much more likely to hang on to them and wait until the market rebounds and sell in January or they may do what Dortmund did with Christian Pulisic where they sold him in January but he stayed with them for six more months. Something like that is possible.

In a normal year all three would be likely to move, maybe not abroad, but they would move. But because of the situation now and the transfer market being in a very strange place, they might have to bide their time which would of course be great for the clubs involved and for the Bundesliga as well.

BT Sport is the home of the German Bundesliga with coverage of every game.Watch on TV, the app or with the BT Sport Monthly pass www.bt.com/sport/monthly-pass

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