Dortmund Faces Hoffenheim: Key Questions and Tactical Insights

The window is shut. The rumours have quietened. For Borussia Dortmund, it’s finally just about the football again.

They’ve started as they were supposed to: three points banked against Hamburg in the league, safe passage in the cup against HEBC. Routine, efficient, largely untroubled. Now comes something very different.

Now comes Hoffenheim.

Hoffenheim Reloaded

Hoffenheim spent last season punching above their weight, finishing just a single point short of the Champions League spots. Not bad for a club that, not long ago, was staring down the barrel of relegation.

Christian Ilzer walked into that crisis during the 24/25 campaign, steadied the ship, kept them up, then doubled their points tally the following year. That kind of turnaround doesn’t happen by accident. His team play with the ball, with conviction, and with a clear idea.

The summer tested that structure. Bazoumana Toure, their electric winger, moved on. Fisnik Asllani’s proposed switch to RB Leipzig collapsed after he failed his medical, and he remains sidelined through injury. Key attacking pieces gone or unavailable, just as Hoffenheim looked ready to kick on.

So they rebuilt on the fly. Patrick Wimmer arrived from Wolfsburg to fill the Toure void out wide. Two of the Bundesliga’s most eye-catching names followed: Mats Rots and Nathan De Cat. De Cat, a sharp, two-way midfielder, is expected to slot into the centre of the pitch alongside Wouter Burger, who has quietly become a vital cog.

Only Wimmer started in Hoffenheim’s wild 2–3 opening defeat to Köln, a game where the scoreline did not match their control. They had 59% of the ball and still walked away with nothing. That won’t sit well with Ilzer. It should also be a warning for Dortmund: this is not a side that will retreat and wait.

Expect the XI to look different this time. Expect it to be stronger.

Dortmund’s Questions: Who Plays, and How?

Niko Kovac arrives at this game with six points from six in all competitions, but also with a headache.

The first issue: personnel. Konstantelias is out with an ACL injury. Samuele Inacio is suspended. That rips a hole in the line of players who operate just behind Serhou Guirassy and alongside Karetsas. Kovac has options, but none are perfect like-for-like replacements.

Marcel Sabitzer, Carney Chukwuemeka, and new signing Ethan Nwaneri are all in the frame to step into that advanced role. Given Kovac’s tendencies and the need for control in a hostile midfield, Sabitzer looks the logical pick to start. Experience, work rate, and the ability to link play in tight spaces tilt the scales in his favour.

Then comes the bigger question: how will Dortmund actually approach this?

Against both Hamburg sides, they dominated. Across those two matches, they out-shot their opponents 35–9, with a staggering 20 attempts in the Bundesliga opener alone. They hogged the ball, dictated tempo, and spent most of the game in the opposition half.

Hoffenheim will not accept that script. Last season they ranked fourth in the league for possession, with Dortmund sitting sixth. They want the ball just as badly, maybe more. At home, under Ilzer, they’ll try to seize it early and keep it.

So Dortmund face a fork in the road. Do they fight Hoffenheim for the ball in midfield and risk an open, end-to-end battle? Or do they accept stretches without possession and trust their ability to be ruthless when chances come?

This is their toughest test of the season so far, not because of raw talent alone, but because of style. Lose the midfield, and they’ll spend the evening chasing shadows. Win it, and they can turn Hoffenheim’s ambition against them.

The Kramaric Problem

Every Dortmund fan knows the name that lingers over this fixture: Andrej Kramaric.

He’s 35 now, more super-sub than guaranteed starter, but his record against die Schwarzgelben is brutal. In the club’s entire history, only five players have scored more goals against Dortmund. Four of those sit inside the Bundesliga’s all-time top 10 scorers. The other ranks 15th.

Kramaric is in that company for a reason.

Across 18 matches against Dortmund, he has scored 11 times. Two of those came in this exact fixture last season. He doesn’t need 90 minutes. He needs a moment, a gap between the lines, a tired defender, a half-second of hesitation.

Expect him to start on the bench. Expect him to come on with the game in the balance. And expect him to treat it like a personal mission.

How Dortmund Are Likely to Line Up

Kovac experimented with a 4-3-3 in the cup win over HEBC. That felt like a test run, a controlled environment to tweak and tinker.

For Hoffenheim away, the coach is expected to return to his trusted 3-4-2-1.

Gregor Kobel comes back in goal after Meyer’s cup outing. The back three should be Gadou, Anton, and Ryerson, a blend of aggression and mobility. Out wide, Svensson and Beier are set to operate as wing-backs, tasked with both pinning Hoffenheim’s wide men back and covering the inevitable counters.

In midfield, Nmecha and Bellingham remain the core pairing. They’ll have to be sharp: press-resistant under pressure, disciplined without the ball, and brave enough to play forward when the game tightens. Ahead of them, Sabitzer is tipped to join Karetsas in the two supporting roles behind Guirassy.

Up front, there’s no real debate. After his goal last week, Serhou Guirassy should lead the line again, the focal point for everything Dortmund try to build.

A Knife-Edge Contest

The stage is set: a possession-hungry Hoffenheim, a Dortmund side still shaping its identity under Kovac, and a veteran striker lurking with a history of breaking yellow-and-black hearts.

The margins look thin. The prediction? A narrow 2–1 Dortmund win.

If they pull it off, this won’t just be three more points. It will be the first real sign that this Dortmund side can suffer, adapt, and still walk away with the result that matters.