AUGSBURG – Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dormund are
lacking the maturity needed to be champions, club adviser Matthias
Sammer has said following their shock 2-1 defeat at fourth-bottom
Augsburg on Friday.
Mistakes in defence led to both Augsburg goals, with South Korean
forward Ji Dong Won scoring either side of the break before Paco
Alcacer's 81st-minute consolation.
Sammer, who as a player with Dortmund won two Bundesliga title before
winning a third as club coach, said young players were making
mistakes.
"That's what makes champions – and at 19 or 20 you can't be a
champion," Sammer said of the youthful Dortmund squad in comments as
TV pundit for Eurosport.
Dortmund were going into games with the public perception they were
already champions "but they are immature, they are just immature."
The game was not decided on the pitch "but in the head," he said.
"In this sort of game you have to reach 90 or 95 per cent – 60 per
cent is not enough.
"In games like these against Augsburg, Dusseldorf, Hanover or
Nuremberg, Borussia are not behaving like champions but like an
average team in the Bundesliga."
Dortmund, who host Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League last
16 second leg on Tuesday hoping to overturn a 3-0 deficit, have now
won only one of their last seven games in all competitions.
Later Saturday they could see champions Bayern Munich, who visit
third-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach, draw level with them on
points.