Grading Thomas Tuchel on Borussia Dortmund’s 2015/16 Season

With the 2015/16 season over for Borussia Dortmund after no fewer than 56 matches across all competitions, it’s a good time to reflect on the job head coach Thomas Tuchel has done.

His first year in charge of the Black and Yellows has been largely successful with occasional hiccups. Though it ended in disappointment in all three competitions—for one reason or another—fans can look back fondly at a season that exceeded most expectations.

Here, Bleacher Report takes a look at Tuchel’s body of work in his first year in charge of Dortmund before giving him a final grade for the 2015/16 season.

Results

Dortmund won 78 points in the Bundesliga this season, a new record for runners-up in the German top flight and just three points behind the Black and Yellows’ club-record tally from the 2011/12 season.

Considering where they came from, having finished the previous campaign in seventh place with only 46 points, the massive improvement exceeded every expectation.

As Stefan Buczko noted for ESPN FC, Dortmund’s 78 points would have been enough to win the title “46 out of 53 times.” It’s hard to blame the club for not winning the championship with that tally: They were very good, but Bayern Munich were even better.

One of the few blemishes on a strong domestic campaign was a 5-1 loss at Bayern in October, however.

Dortmund’s heaviest defeat of the season set the tone for a title race that never really was. When the club had a chance to reduce the deficit to two points in the return fixture, they were lucky to win a point in a goalless draw.

A remarkable consistency saw Dortmund lose only four league matches, none of which came at the Westfalenstadion. That being said, the 10-point deficit behind Bayern in the final table was disappointing.

Losing 1-0 against relegation battlers Eintracht Frankfurt and drawing 2-2 with Cologne on the last two matchdays of the season prompted Tuchel to question his side’s sharpness in the final weeks of the season.

Per the club’s official website, he said: “We played to our limit on every match day, but we stopped doing that 10 days ago. That is not good. That is not what we are about. That does not give us a good feeling. That is why I find it hard today to accept compliments about our season.”

The fear at the time was that the lack of form would show in the DFB-Pokal final against Bayern at the weekend. It was Dortmund’s third straight trip to the final in Berlin’s Olympiastadion and, unfortunately, the third straight loss.

As such, one could describe the club’s cup run as par for the course. The Black and Yellows have turned into veritable experts in the cup after years of being a laughing stock that struggled against lower-league competition. …

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