Signing Sebastian Rode Seems a Rare Transfer-Market Miss for Borussia Dortmund

When it comes to the transfer market, Borussia Dortmund have earned an excellent reputation.

Keeping the Black and Yellows among the top 15 or so clubs in European football despite regularly losing the best players to teams with more financial firepower requires a keen eye and shrewd investments. The margin for error is smaller than, say, Bayern Munich’s or Real Madrid’s.

By and large, Dortmund’s decision-makers—transfers are executed by sporting director Michael Zorc but agreed upon by him, chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke and head coach Thomas Tuchel—have done well in identifying transfer targets and closing deals.

Whether they are “the undisputed kings of the transfer market,” as Squawka put it in the summer, is a question everyone has to answer on an individual basis. In any case, though, bad decisions from Dortmund are so rare that they stick out like a sore thumb.

Of the current crop of players who arrived at the Westfalenstadion at the start of the season, Sebastian Rode has all the makings of such a miss on the transfer market for the Black and Yellows.

The club was in a difficult situation in the summer, having seen three world-class players depart for greener pastures in team captain Mats Hummels, midfield mastermind Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan—by all accounts, the team’s best player last season.

They answered those losses by signing no fewer than eight players, mostly talented youngsters with little experience. While not all of those talents have emerged to this point—defensive all-rounder Mikel Merino has played only one game, for example, while attacker Emre Mor struggles to make the squad these days—they have at least indicated their vast potential and suggested they can become difference-makers.

More seasoned signings Marc Bartra, Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle have played when health and fitness have permitted and can be considered regulars, even though they have yet to find a consistent level.

Inconsistency is not something Rode can be accused of. He has been consistent—but consistently average, at best.

The 26-year-old, signed for €12 million, per Transfermarkt, was brought in to add another dimension to Dortmund’s midfield after the Black and Yellows lacked some power and aggression in the middle of the park during Tuchel’s first year at the club.

A determined runner and physical box-to-box midfielder, Rode was never going to replace Gundogan in a creative role; rather, the hope was that he would give his head coach another option with strengths in pressing and counter-pressing.

A player such as the former Bayern Munich man, so was the thinking, could have helped in the dramatic UEFA Europa League collapse at Anfield against Liverpool, when Dortmund squandered a two-goal lead with 33 minutes to go to crash out of the quarter-finals after being heavily favoured to win the competition.

During pre-season, those hopes looked justified. Rode was in impressive physical shape and played well in friendly matches. He was arguably the …

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