The lights were on late into the night at Borussia Dortmund’s headquarters on Sunday as BVB chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke, sporting director Michael Zorc and head coach Jürgen Klopp met to talk about the first half of the season. On Monday, Watzke released some details of the conversation.

“We haven’t done everything right, irrespective of our injuries woes. But things are not going to change by themselves. It will only work if we return to our roots, if we have extremely fit and committed players again to play the kind of successful football we played for years,” said Watzke in an interview with Sky TV.

Watzke, Zorc and Klopp couldn’t find the principal reason for BVB’s plunge down the table from second to second to last place, but, so Watzke, there were one or two things “that speeded things up.” Due to the injury-related absences (of, among others, Hummels, Reus, Blaszczykowski, Sahin, and Gündogan, as well as Mkhitaryan, Kirch, Schmelzer later in the season) “we didn’t have a proper preseason to get the squad prepared for the sort of football that we normally play and that has made us so popular around Europe. We need maximum fitness for that which we didn’t have. Even the deepest squad of all time was not enough.”

On the lacking consistency Watzke said: “That we were able to put in outstanding performances we showed in the Champions League and to some degree in the Bundesliga, but the players were not able to perform at this level for four months as the necessary conditions just didn’t exist.”

Claims the squad is not deep enough Watzke waved away, saying: “We are only able to plan on the basis of the facts that are available to us. Too many players can mess up the mood in a team.”

The BVB chairman also made clear that Jürgen Klopp continues to have the full support of the club. “We have one of the best coaches there is. This is a fact. Jürgen is totally focussed. He’s 150 percent behind this.”

Despite a tight table, the club is not wasting any thoughts on qualifying for Europe as Watzke emphasised: “We don’t even talk about it. Our first target is to avoid relegation. We are able to do without Champions or Europa League for a year without incurring debts.”