Sahin’s successor: Coach Mike Tullberg should give Borussia Dortmund courage again

Danish football coach Mike Tullberg took over a team on Thursday that is physically and mentally out of shape; which cannot defend, but it cannot attack either. That’s what Matthias Sammer said – literally. The 57-year-old is an official advisor and therefore an intimate expert at Borussia Dortmund, and coming from such an appointed mouth is a terrible testimony for a team. Shortly after this devastating verdict in the wake of a 1-2 defeat at FC Bologna, BVB released its coach Nuri Sahin in view of four competitive defeats in a row.

At least for the weekend’s Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen, this position will now be taken over by Tullberg, who has been the coach of Dortmund’s A youth team for four and a half years and has led the juniors to the final of the German championship three times in a row. They won against Hertha BSC in 2022, after which there were two defeats against Mainz and Hoffenheim.

Collective non-constitution, no attack and no defense? Is things really that bad for Borussia? As expected, Tullberg has this opinion: “This team cannot have forgotten how to play football.”

Tullberg lives in neighboring Essen and actually wanted to rent a hotel in Dortmund from Wednesday so that he could prepare for the game without being disturbed by his wife and children. But then he had so many conversations on the club grounds in the northwest of the city that he didn’t leave until late in the evening and spontaneously decided that he could drive home via the now empty A40. “I have a nice wife and three nice children,” he says with a smile, and that is also a form of reassurance for a 39-year-old who has been in the football business for a long time but has never been in the spotlight like this in a game.

Tullberg’s own playing career from 2006 to 2011 was manageable, mainly due to injuries: twelve times in the Danish Superliga for Aarhus, seven times in the Scottish first division for Heart of Midlothian, five times in Serie A for Reggina and four times in the second division for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen . At the age of 26 he already became a coach: first as an assistant at the amateur club SG Schönebeck in Essen, then as a youth coach in Oberhausen and from 2019 at Borussia Dortmund; initially coach of the second team, then coach of the A-youth team.

Tullberg, who appears extremely emotional on the sidelines, has repeatedly aroused interest in the industry, according to rumors from Eintracht Frankfurt, 1. FC Nürnberg or, most recently, the top Norwegian club Brann Bergen. Why does he never leave Dortmund? “Because I feel comfortable here,” he said on Friday at the press conference before the Bremen game. But he didn’t want to talk about possible greater prospects at BVB or about possible promises that would have made him stay there. “I now have the clear task of looking after the team until Saturday,” he said, and about his superior: “I have been given the clear task by Lars Ricken of trying to win this game.”

“Football is the most important thing that is not important”: Mike Tullberg can reflect

Tullberg is apparently ruled out as a permanent solution. BVB is looking for an experienced coach, especially after the interlude with the 36-year-old Sahin. The candidate Urs Fischer (most recently Union Berlin) is considered interesting and interested. There has apparently been no contact with the candidate Niko Kovac (most recently at VfL Wolfsburg). The candidate Erik ten Hag is available, but is officially still under contract with Manchester United and would cost a lot of money. The candidate Roger Schmidt (most recently Benfica Lisbon) wants to take a break until the summer. The candidate Sandro Wagner wants to remain assistant coach to national coach Julian Nagelsmann for the time being. The candidate Joachim Löw (most recently national coach) was brought into play exclusively by Lothar Matthäus. And the candidate Bo Svensson is probably not a candidate at all.

Borussia’s sports director Sebastian Kehl claimed on Thursday: “We don’t want to fall into actionism.” But do you have to believe that? BVB is currently falling heavily into activism – and it should.

Tullberg has few, but clearer goals for what may only be a three-day reign: “Get energy into the team and give the players courage.” He wants to see courageous footballers in the game against the ball who don’t wait and see. He ideally imagines the BVB players’ recently overly cautious approach like this: “In full sprint with drool in the mouth and knife between the teeth.”

About football, which, along with his family, is the great passion of his life, Tullberg says mischievously: “Football is the most important thing that is not important.” With this beautiful one, which he now claims to be the author of, he also likes one of the most important ones Men in the club: the sports director Ricken, who has only been in office for six months and previously worked closely with Tullberg as head of the youth department. A few young Bundesliga players who went through Rickens and Tullberg’s department: Jamie Gittens (BVB), Nnamdi Collins (Eintracht Frankfurt), Colin Kleine-Bekel (Holstein Kiel) and Tom Rothe (Union Berlin). Ricken thinks very highly of Tullberg, who, after BVB’s recent failures, formulated this hope for the desperate players: “You mustn’t lose the fun!” He certainly doesn’t have a patent for this aphorism, but what the heck, it still fits.