BVB's goal scoring woes

A number of reasons have been reeled off about why Dortmund's season, which comes two years after a Champions League final, is in such turmoil. But whatever the various experts say, the central problem is clear according to Dortmund defender, Mats Hummels.

"We are just not scoring the goals. We have only managed 18 in 19 rounds," Mats Hummels told German TV channel Sky. "That is crazy."

Hummels is right. By way of comparison, at the same stage last campaign, BVB had scored 42 goals and in 2012/13, they had 43 from their opening 19 games. Losing Robert Lewandowski, the key to Dortmund's attack for the last four years, has hit the team hard.

The Pole's replacements, Ciro Immobile and Adrian Ramos, have combined for five Bundesliga goals so far in total - that's two less than Lewandowski has by himself for Bayern this season.

A problem with roots in the past

The loss of Mario Götze at the end of the 2012/13 season was met with uproar from BVB fans, mainly directed at the Bayern bound man. But in the season that followed, in which Dortmund finished second (at that point) a worrying 19 points behind Bayern, he was adequately replaced by Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian started his yellow and black career well, scoring 9 goals and assisting 10 times.

However a far greater loss for BVB was when Lewandowski moved. Since his departure, Dortmund's usual clinical style in which they force their opponents into mistakes before captilizing with composure in front of goal, has been lost.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the club's top goal scorer in the league this season, with five goals. Those goals have come from 53 attempts by the Gabon international. In total, Dortmund averages around 17 shots per game, with less than one goal a game actually being scored. It's not a lack of chances that is the problem.

In addition to Aubameyang, Immobile and Mkhitaryan have each had 35 shots this season with the Italian striker scoring on just three ocassions. Don't forget star man Marco Reus, who despite being injured for the majority of the season has mustered three goals, at a rate of a goal every 10 shots.

And Dortmund's lack of goals are giving rise to another, related problem too. The men in defense are desperately trying to push the game forward. This leads to passing and positional mistakes which BVB have paid for on a number of occasions this season.

The knock-on effect

In Wednesday night's 1-0 home defeat to Augsburg, Mkhitaryan and Immobile both missed simple chances to score at the back post in the final five minutes. These were chances that players of their quality would usually take for fun.

Pressure makes a person do funny things, and the amount of pressure Dortmund find themselves in now is showing. It was evident at full-time on Wednesday, with the angry reaction of many fans to captain Mats Hummels and Roman Weidenfeller.

Jürgen Klopp now knows that simply motivating his players won't be enough. "We are not making anything of our opportunities," he said, after the game. "We are fighting, but we are not fighting cleverly. That's why the results are repeating themselves."

With games to come against Freiburg (currently 15th on the table) and Stuttgart (currently 16th) in the next three weeks, it's vital that the shots start going in for BVB, sooner rather than later. That should change the pattern of poor results.