Borussia Dortmund will travel to VfB Stuttgart looking ahead at what's to come and not looking back at what's been and done. ''Those were fantastic games. But that's all over now,'' said Favre in reference to the exploits before the international break against Leverkusen (4-2) and Augsburg (4-3). Now BVB are faced with another set of seven matches in the space of three weeks. Much to the head coach's displeasure.

''Under normal circumstances it's not possible for players to play seven club games and then go off and play two more with their national team.Then play seven more, followed by two additional ones. Then do it again. We had two or three players who played all seven games. Akanji's ended up getting injured,'' said Favre. Marco Reus only avoided playing all seven due to a knee complaint. ''We have to rotate, but we also have to find solutions,'' explained the Swiss coach. ''We can't rotate in every position.'' On paper, there's plenty of depth in the squad, but: ''You could say we have almost too many options in midfield; that's not true of our defence.''

Those present at today's press conference may have come away with the impression that Axel Witsel (''He played 90 minutes again on Tuesday,'') and Paco Alcácer (''He's just about ready to play from the start. But we have to be careful. He hasn't played the full 90 minutes for two and a half years,'') will possibly only make appearances from the bench.

After the injuries sustained by Manuel Akanji (hip strain) and Marcel Schmelzer (''He still isn't able to train,''), Favre will have to readjust his defence once more. Ömer Toprak would be the logical replacement for Akanji, but the coach seems to want to tread carefully in this regard: ''He played on Monday, but before that he'd been out for a good five or six weeks, he barely trained with the team.'' The central defender was able to go through a full week of training, but his potential partners in central defence, Diallo and Hakimi, were both away on international duty, meaning that it wasn't possible to get him integrated into the defensive structure.  

Nonetheless: Reus and Christian Pulisic are both available again. Marius Wolf and Raphael Guerreiro, who was forced to take a break last week, could potentially play.

It's clear that it's very much up in the air how the team will line up on Saturday at 15.30 CET. But the same goes for the opposition. ''There's always a reaction when a new coach comes in,'' said Lucien Favre, who still holds VfB in high regard: ''Stuttgart have a good team, despite the fact they're bottom of the league.''

Boris Rupert