Suddenly benched? Bundesliga regular faces nightmare start

Suddenly benched? Bundesliga regular faces nightmare start That the football business is brutal and can turn into an absolute nightmare overnight is something even established stars have to experience time and again firsthand. Jobe Bellingham, too, is suddenly facing the threat of a nightmare start to the season at BVB. Will he have to settle for a place on the bench from now on? After a strong second half of last season, the Englishman had actually established himself as a regular starter for Dortmund. Actually. But after the 1-2 Super Cup defeat to Bayern, everything suddenly seems different. As 'kicker' reported during the week, Bellingham will probably not be in the starting eleven for today’s season opener against Hamburger SV (from 6:30 p.m.). Because of a single match? In the showdown with FCB, Bellingham really did have a nightmare of a day. A perfect example came in the 45th minute: the 20-year-old lost the ball in the build-up to Michael Olise, who reacted quickly, broke past Dortmund’s defense and made it 2-0 to Bayern at the time. “I don’t see any blame at all on Jobe there. He is standing exactly where he needs to be,” BVB coach Kovac stressed at the following press conference after Bellingham had come in for criticism after the game. Despite defending him, Kovac apparently is not planning to use Bellingham at defensive midfield for the time being. The reason for that could be Joey Veerman. Dortmund’s new signing is significantly more experienced at 27 than the 20-year-old Bellingham. In addition, unlike the Englishman, he is considered a much stronger and more reliable player on the ball. Apart from the mistake before the goal against Bayern, Bellingham made several other errors in the build-up. After ten minutes, for example, he played a square pass in his own half straight to Luiz Diaz, which then led to a Bayern corner. Is that too much risk for Kovac against HSV? The BVB coach himself has come under criticism repeatedly lately and will likely want to avoid a poor start to the season at all costs. On top of that, the Black and Yellows did not pay nearly €22 million to PSV Eindhoven for the midfielder just a few weeks ago for nothing. “Joey is a really terrific footballer with a great deal of creativity, technique and vision,” Dortmund’s sporting director emphasized when the signing was made. Managing director Lars Ricken echoed the sentiment: “Joey is a player who will help us enormously with his abilities.” But one thing is also clear: Dortmund are facing a long season. Veerman and established international Felix Nmecha will inevitably need a rest from time to time in defensive midfield. Otherwise, Dortmund will not be able to cope with the triple challenge of the cup, Champions League and league. For the moment, though, that sounds more like a consolation prize for Bellingham, who clearly has ambitions to remain a regular starter for BVB. Unfortunately, as a player, you cannot always decide that for yourself. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.