Is there life after Klopp?

First signing for Sweetman.

Lee Sweetman has today confirmed that Real Madrid Powerhouse Sami Khedira has become his & Dortmund's first signing of the season.

The 27 midfielder's contract expired with Real Madrid and has signed on a free transfer. He has signed a 4 year deal worth £90,000 a week.


After the signing, Lee had this to say: "Sami is a fantastic powerhouse of a midfielder, I have already lost Sebastian Kehl due to retirement, and I'm glad to have been able to get someone of Sami's quality for a free transfer."

Lee is reported to be after a striker, with Porto's Jackson Martinez, the main target for the Dortmund Manager.

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Dortmund have today announced the following fixtures as part of their Pre Season schedule:

Game 1 - Dnipro v Dortmund
Game 2 - FC Red Bull Salzburg v Dortmund
Game 3 - SV Grodig v Dortmund
Game 4 - Aves v Dortmund
Game 5 - Dortmund v Valencia

The first game after the Pre Season is then the Supercup where Dortmund will take on FC Bayern.

Lee is hoping for at least 3 victories in Pre season, however, he has said he would much prefer 5 wins from 5.

Good first signing and good luck with this career!

Thank you mate. Shall be trying my best that's for sure!

German Supercup:

FC Bayern vs Dortmund

I came into this game not expecting to get any sort of result against a FC Bayern team who didn't have any injuries / suspensions that I could see, meaning they were at full strength as well as me being at full strength. I was hoping to pick up a draw at the best.

I picked a full strength team in a 4-2-3-1 formation. (I can't post my Starting XI as a player has a name that FM Base have in the banned list, so it won't allow me to post it.)

The Result was:

FC Bayern 1 (Alaba 87)
Dortmund 3 (Reus 10,55 & Sisto 18)

Key Stats:

Shots - Bayern 24-11 Dortmund
Shots on Target - Bayern 11-7 Dortmund
Possession - Bayern 57%-43% Dortmund

As you can see from the stats it was a backs against the wall performance, I played Counter attack strategy, and it worked well! Next, The DFB-Pokal 1st round game against Waldkirch.

- - - - - -

So onto the cup first round against Non League Waldkirch, I played a decent side, not my best, but not the worst I could play, I was expecting to win by at least 3 goals looking at where the team I was playing against was in the leagues.

Result:

Waldkirch 0
Dortmund 9 (Castro 6,7 & Kagawa 17 & Soriano 34,56,59,79 & Ramos 58)

Key Stats:

Shots - Waldkirch 2-38 Dortmund
Shots on target - Waldkirch 1-23 Dortmund
Possession - Waldkirch 35%-65%

I didn't expect to win that easy, Soriano again was an absolute assassin in front of goal, and to score 4 was fantastic, I am already starting to feel that £5M was an absolute bargain. The result also broke the following 3 records: Most amount of goals in Cup game, biggest Dortmund win in the cup & most amount of goals scored by 1 player in the cup in a Dortmund team.

On the downside, Jakub Blaszczsykowski picked up a Twisted Knee and will be out for 2-3 weeks. Next up is the first League game of the season against Gladbach.

- - - - -

I went into my first league game against Gladbach full of confidence after a stunning 2 first games where I had scored 12 and conceded just 1. I named a strong First team XI that included Hummels, Kampel, Gundogan & Soriano.

Things didn't start well, after 15 minutes I hadn't had 1 shot where as Gladbach had managed to have 12. I then went down to 10 men, which I knew it was going to be a struggle from there.

Also, a goal disallowed meant it just wasn't my day and I had to take a heavy defeat.

Result:

Dortmund -1 (Ramos 90)
Gladbach - 3 (Stindl 38 & Hrgota 74 & Hahn 78)

Key Stats:

Shots - Dortmund 17-18 Gladbach
Shots on target - Dortmund 6-9 Gladbach
Possession - Dortmund 51%-49% Gladbach

So, the lads will need to pick themselves up after such a tough result. My next match is against Levekusen in the League.

Current Position: 14th / 18th.

My Champions league group has been drawn and I have been given a very tough one and pitted against Chelsea, Ajax & Monaco.

- - - - -

After a bad loss against Gladbach I came up against Levekusen, not the match I needed when I hoped the lads would hit form, after the first loss of the season I again went for the best team I possibly could.

Result

Levekusen - 2 (Drmic 4 & Brandt 85)
Dortmund - 1 (Sahin 72)

Key Stats:

Shots - Levekusen 17-22 Dortmund
Shots on Target - Levekusen 8-9 Dortmund
Possession - 53%-47%

Another frustrating game, after getting back into it and thinking I could get all 3 points an annoying goal took any point away from me. Changes are needed big time.

Next up is a home game against 9th place Mainz.

Current League Position: 16th / 18th.

- - - -

The crucial game against Mainz is here, I have gone for it, Complete over haul of formation, changed 11 players, so fingers crossed I will be able to turn this rot around!

The game got off to a perfect start, straight from kick of Sisto managed to smash in a 25 yard effort, 1-0 up within 20 seconds is just what I needed! I was then immediatly pegged back and after 15 minutes it was 1-1, however, I was all over Mainz!

Result:

Dortmund 6 (Sisto 1 & Schmelzer 15 & Aubameyang 29,56 & Immobile 46, Papastathopoulos 61)
Mainz 2 (De Blasis 4, Okazaki 26)

Key Stats:

Shots - Dortmund 31-11 Mainz
Shots on Target -Dortmund 17-5 Mainz
Possession - Dortmund 45%-55% Mainz

A massive & much needed win for me to lift me into mid table, hopefully I can keep the run up!