Borussia Dortmund will look to get their first three points of the season when they travel to FC Augsburg on Friday night (kick-off: 2030 CET). “But we don’t go there thinking we have already won. We are well aware of the difficulty of this tie,” said Jürgen Klopp, adding, “We’ll need to show our true colours there.”

However, the same applies to Michael Weinzierl’s side who have so far failed to get out of the starting blocks, losing both their opening match in the Bundesliga and their cup tie. “I knew there would be a few surprises in the first round as lower leagues clubs have started the season much earlier,” said Klopp about the defeat Augsburg and other Bundesliga teams suffered in the DFB Cup, adding: “And in the next game you have to travel to Hoffenheim…”

“We are not finished developing our team“

After losing their opening match, Augsburg will be under a bit of pressure on Friday night, but so will BVB be after going down 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen. Having already completed their preseason work, and BVB still feeling the effects of the World Cup, the works club were the wrong opponents on the wrong day. “We are not finished developing our team,” said Klopp, adding: “We had to do without too many players for too long a time, while other players are not yet where we want them to be for different reasons.”

On Wednesday, the Dortmund coach also looked back in detail at the opening match. “The system is not to blame for the less good moments in the game, but the way we played our football. I always expect the best from my lads, but the best is dramatically influenced by what happens around them.” What he meant was the earliest goal in the history of the Bundesliga after nine seconds.

“On Friday two teams will meet who can play better than they have so far this season,” said Klopp in the build-up to the game at Augsburg. “We want to cause them so many problems they will need another week to get back on track. We need to get points on the board, and the team intends to do that.”

Weidenfeller leads the team on the field as captain

Klopp refused to reveal any of his plans how the team may line up on Friday, also because some of the players (Bender, Ramos) are still rated doubtful. What is clear, though, is that Roman Weidenfeller will return between the sticks and lead the team on the field as captain standing in for Mats Hummels who is not fit yet, with Marco Reus being the third captain.

“We have to play with what we have available. With the players who are fully fit, and the ones who are not fully fit yet – and that on a weekly basis in the extreme business of Bundesliga football,” said Klopp about the injury situation. “Ideally, in five weeks’ time no one will remember that we had to deal with one or two problems.”

Apart from learning one or two lessons from the opening match against Leverkusen, BVB can take a lot of positives from Tuesday’s match in Mannheim into the game against Augsburg. And there’s also the interesting fact that under Jürgen Klopp Borussia Dortmund have never failed to win any of the two opening games of a Bundesliga campaign. If the run continues, the Black and Yellows will return to Dortmund on Friday night with their first three points in the bag…