Tranzacție finalizată: FCSB a achiziționat un fundaș și un mijlocaș central de top… află mai multe.

Borussia Dortmund have only two games remaining before they get a nice long break during the Bundesliga’s Winterpause. They currently sit in ninth place. They don’t have any more matches in the Champions League until late January. All Nuri Sahin and his men need to do is stay within spitting distance of the top four to be able to recover and try to go on a run in the second half of the Bundesliga season.

The first obstacle in Dortmund’s path is TSG Hoffenheim, a club that has historically given it problems, but that has struggled to stay afloat so far, currently sitting only three points above the relegation playoff spot, and have one of the worst expected goal differences in the league. Despite making several large (by their standards) transfers over the summer, including signing Adam Hlozek from Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim have been flirting with relegation. It’s already cost the job of one manager, Pellegrino Matarazzo, who was sacked in November and replaced by Christian Ilzer, who joined from Sturm Graz.

Player to Watch: Andrej Kramaric

Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images

I really had no choice but to pick Andrej Kramaric. This guy has tortured us BVB fans for years, and believe it or not, he is still Hoffenheim’s top offensive threat. He leads Hoffenheim in combined goals and assists, despite being in the midst of a long goal slump. The problem is that nobody else on Hoffenheim has been playing that well, and to be honest, Kramaric could be playing on one leg and I would still pick him to score against Dortmund.

Predicted Lineup

Nuri Sahin will have to deal with one question above all else: who the heck is going to play center-back? Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Süle, and Waldemar Anton are all injured. Those are all three of this club’s established, full-time, and first-team center-backs. So that’s bad enough; but according to Ruhr Nachrichten, Filippo Mané, who’s probably the most appropriate replacement from the youth ranks, is also hurt! Nuri Sahin will have to get creative.

Emre Can clearly can play center-back, but Sahin will need at least one more recruit. I’m guessing that it will be Ramy Bensebaini. I’ve looked through his match logs on FBref, and he not only has he played center-back a few times with Dortmund and Mönchengladbach, but he seems to routinely play center-back for Algeria. Unfortunately, that simply shifts the burden from center-back to full-back, because as of Friday, Julian Ryerson was questionable to play against Hoffenheim. Yan Couto can play right-back, while the 18-year-old Almugera Kabar can stand in at left-back.

In midfield, the situation is hardly any better. Julian Brandt is still questionable, but at least Felix Nmecha and Marcel Sabitzer are healthy, and Gio Reyna and Pascal Groß are both healthy. It was the former who played in for Brandt on Wednesday, Surprisingly, it’s in attack that Dortmund are the healthiest. Karim Adeyemi was theoretically healthy on Wednesday, but it seems that Sahin is being cautious with him, so I’m not sure he’ll play tomorrow.