Borussia Dortmund prepare hostile reception for Mario Gotze vs. Bayern

It's Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup for the fourth time in five years and there's a familiar theme: concern about a hostile reception for Mario Gotze at Signal Iduna Park.

But there's a twist, too. Unlike in 2013 and 2014, when the Germany international had to warm up inside the ground for fear of the crowd's anger, Gotze will be wearing the shirt of the Black and Yellows again on Sunday night. Whether that'll keep the expected negativity toward him under wraps is a different matter.

"Of course I'm thinking about the welcome I'll get," the 24-year-old admitted. "I don't know what it will be."

Many supporters have not forgiven the attacking midfielder for defecting south in 2013. The announcement of his return to Westphalia in 2016-17 was greeted with outright hostility in supporters' online forums. To counter those sentiments, Gotze has publicly shown contrition for his departure, declaring it a mistake.

BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has also asked the faithful to respect the returnee. "Players wearing the Borussia shirt demand support, in general," he told German newspaper Bild.

In addition, Watzke painted a picture of a naive, inexperienced Gotze having been led astray by the devious Bavarians in 2013, musing that "somebody told him lies" and falsely made out that he had been Pep Guardiola's favourite transfer.

As Bayern themselves have admitted, the Catalan coach had originally asked for Neymar instead. It's a good story -- and not too far from the truth -- but it also presents an obvious problem: it reminds everyone that Gotze has come back only because he didn't succeed at the Allianz Arena in the first place. Dortmund have offered an escape route, a chance for rehabilitation, for a career reboot. It was a business decision; it's not love. At least, not yet.

Fortunately for the scorer of the World Cup-winning goal in 2014, who's not expected to start against Bayern, there'll be a second, potentially even bigger target of animosity: former BVB captain Mats Hummels will make his second competitive Bayern debut -- he left Munich in 2008 after a handful of games -- against the club he has served as a leader for over the past eight years.

Hummels is under no illusions that "there will certainly be people who won't greet me that nicely," but he is not the type to lose too much sleep over it. Maybe by the time Gotze comes on as a substitute late on, alongside Germany teammate Andre Schurrle, who also won't feature from the beginning because of the pair's late return from Euro 2016, the Signal Iduna crowd will have become too hoarse from jeering Hummels to vent more ire toward "Super Mario." We will see. Or rather, hear.

As far as the game is concerned, Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel has taken a very pessimistic stance, promising very little. "After the impressions from the last friendlies, I could do without the Super Cup," he said. "We're happy to play the game but we'd be well advised not to expect too much."

The integration of half a dozen of new signings, like winger Ousmane Dembele, former Barcelona centre-back Marc Bartra and Portugal's Euro 2016-winning left-back Raphael Guerreiro takes time, especially now that the team's central axis of Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan (sold to Manchester City) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (sold to Manchester United) are no longer available to provide stability.

Tuchel wanted a bigger squad packed with versatile players to rotate more and change tactics more often. But one can tell that he's still getting to grips with the options at his disposal. The staggered arrival of the squad hasn't helped and the Super Cup, two weeks ahead of the start of the regular season, comes at a time when half the team seem a bit tired of preseason and the other half of late-comers are not quite up to speed.

"In terms of challenging Bayern, we've been in better situations before," he added.

Tuchel will have to curb his perfectionism and impatience in coming weeks to not put too much pressure on his re-engineered side. His opposite number Carlo Ancelotti has, by contrast, cut a very relaxed figure at Sabener Strasse, joking about his rudimentary command of German ("If I don't switch to English, we'll still be here by dinner time," he told reporters at the news conference on Friday) and taking some time out for a sneaky cigarette near the training ground.

There are injuries to contend with -- Arjen Robben, Holger Badstuber, Douglas Costa, Jerome Boateng and Renato Sanches -- but no real worries. The only contentious issue could be finding a place for Thomas Muller, whose starting position could come under threat in Ancelotti's preferred 4-3-3 system. Muller will have to adapt, once more, and play on the right side, as he did for Germany at the Euros, with less than impressive results as they crashed out in semifinals to France.

"Of course I'm not happy with the way the summer went, but that doesn't knock me down," the 26-year-old said on Thursday.

The Super Cup is a good chance for Ancelotti to look at Muller's confidence, and for the player to stave off further debate over his scoring drought.

A 4-4-2 formation with two strikers, Ancelotti conceded, could be a possibility in coming weeks, which would certainly help the Bayern talisman's cause. Either way, it is Bayern who will contest the season opener as the more settled side, with Ancelotti well poised to outdo his predecessor at the first attempt: Guardiola lost all three Super Cup games while in charge of the Reds, so the Italian has a chance to make an immediate statement.

How will Pep Guardiola affect the Three Lions?

Leicester City’s historic title win was savoured by many but there isn’t much time for lingering emotion in football. The prospect of Pep Guardiola in England is one many a neutral is looking forward to. Tiago Estêvão poses the question of what effect the famed Spaniard can have on the Three Lions.

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Ever since Guardiola’s agreement with Manchester City was announced, everyone has been speculating about whom will the Spaniard bring in and who will he let go off to revolutionize the team. Just like everyone else, I also enjoy speculating and I too am wondering about his title winning chances in England, for example. But Pep’s influence goes way beyond club level football: wherever he establishes himself as a coach, he brings an entirely new perspective and philosophy to the sport in the country.

Let’s go on a bit of a journey through the years, in Pep’s career. The Catalonian got in charge of Barça for the 2008/09 season and he changed a lot of things around the club – sold some of the stars, promoted some youngsters and built a team with its foundation on Spanish talent. Seven trophies later (including a Champions League title and two La Liga ones), the 2010 World Cup in South Africa came along. As everyone is well aware, Spain won the tournament despite a lot of changes in the squad that had one the Euros just two years prior.

These changes came not just from the managerial swap from Aragones to Del Bosque, but also through the rise of the Catalonian giants under Guardiola. The final’s starting eleven for the Spaniards had the Barça backbone and, consequently, Barcelona’s style of play in it. Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets and Piqué were all in the side, with the latter two only being “Culés” upon the arrival of Pep to the club. Without trying to undermine the work of Del Bosque, the new City manager’s influence was undeniable.

Fast forward a couple of seasons and we saw the coach moving to Munich. The Spanish coach had a terrific time with the Bavarian giants and, while one could argue that not winning the Champions League could be big dent in the project, he won every other possible trophy with the club. And only after being in charge for one silverware packed season, the Brazilian World Cup came along and the German national team took most of his stars with it. Lahm, Boateng, Neuer, Schweinsteiger, Muller and Kroos (who left FCB that summer) were all starters in the final against Argentina, and Mario Gotze came from the bench to score the match winning goal. But the connections, once again, don’t end in the players – the style of play of the World Cup winners had deep connections to the one Bayern played that year. Germany ended their campaign as the team with most passes (4157) and an astounding 82% completion rate, very un-German of them. Conclusion: Guardiola has massive influence wherever he coaches so…with the Catalonian jumping ship to Manchester, how can he affect English national football?

Well, if we look at City’s squad we can find a clear difference from the one that Barça or Bayern had pre-Pep, the sky-blues don’t have many Englishmen in their main ranks. With that said, I expect the new boss to buy a couple of talented British players in the midst of the revolution he’s set to make in the summer. Not only that but also promote a couple of the talents who are graduating from the club academy. Looking at the squad at the moment, we can highlight only a couple of English players. Hart and Delph are the first of them. While, the talented goalkeeper will definitely keep his place, there are more questions around the midfielder’s future at the club. Brought in last year from Villa, the center mid didn’t break through this season but I also do not see him leaving just yet. Expect both Toure and one the Brazilian midfielders to leave in the next few months and, despite the chance of Thiago coming in, Delph will most likely stay as a utility player. Another one I want to shine a bit more of light on is Raheem Sterling.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys watching footballers develop and improving their craft, I’ve got extremely high hopes for Raheem. Despite the good start, Sterling ended up having an average season for his talent and quality, to the point of many not even seeing him as a Euro starter. He was often unfit and, much like his team, was too inconsistent in the latter stages. My feeling is that next season might just be his – I can see him develop under Pep similarly to the way Douglas Costa did, becoming one of the club’s creative wall breakers. The 21 year-old Golden Boy winner has the talent to become world class under Guardiola and will hopefully add the necessary work ethic to do so. The English national team needs at least one stand out star, one player that represents the country’s football talent, goals, skills, brilliance – considered by many as a “Golden Generation”, this generation has several individuals who can carry the team on their backs in dire situations and can be those stand out stars. No matter how the performance in the Euro ends up being, players such as Alli, Kane, Dier and Barkley will keep on developing after the tournament. The Man City winger will keep on doing so as well and I’m predicting him to “explode” under Guardiola, becoming “the” player for England.

Other than that, it doesn’t seem like the manager will be able to affect the Three Lions that much, even less so if we have in account that most – if not all – players that will arrive in the summer will be foreign. Not all hope is lost though, since City’s youth system is full of diamonds in the rough ready to be worked on by the Spaniard. Whether it will be Brandon Barker, Buckley-Ricketts, Nmecha, Marcus Wood or Charlie Oliver, I’m sure we’ll see some talented Englishmen breaking through in the next couple of seasons. Not to mention the incredibly talented Patrick Roberts – on loan to Celtic until the end of the 2016/17 season, the winger who was bought to Fulham has done his part to contribute to another Scottish title for Deila’s men. When the youngster comes back, I fully expect him to be in Guardiola’s plans – especially after already being in charge for a full season, the environment for talented youngsters to thrive might be even more beneficial.

Do you think City’s new manager can make an impact in the English National Team? City’s lack of national players will be detrimental but will that make it impossible? If he had to pull from a selection of Englishmen, which player do you think would be the perfect fit for the Citizens and – what will most likely be – their new style of play? Personally, I’d love to see James Ward-Prowse play under Pep – considering the tremendous amount of potential in the Saints youngster. The excitement to see Guardiola in the top British flight is building up and, no matter who he brings in, it will be extremely interesting to follow.