A Borussia Dortmund squad of 28 players is preparing for the 2015/16 campaign at a pre-season training camp in the Swiss resort of Bad Ragaz. The Black and Yellows' first competitive match will take place a week today, with the Bundesliga season set to kick off in 16 days.

Boris Rupert reporting from Bad Ragaz

If you don't count the waylaid duo of Nuri Sahin and Adrian Ramos or the club's third goalkeeper Hendrik Bonmann, and given that Jakub Blaszczykowski and Kevin Großkreutz are still working their way back to match fitness, there are currently 23 players competing for the eleven places available in the team for the first competitive game of the season next Thursday in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, where BVB will face either Shakhtyor Soligorsk in Belarus or Wolfsberger AC in Austria. 

With two players competing for each place and a hectic fixture list coming up, every player is in with a chance of making the team. Should BVB reach the group stage of the UEFA Europa League and the last sixteen of the DFB Cup, there will be 30 matches to play before Christmas alone. The second half of the season could involve up to 29 matches, including one incredibly hectic period with games on a Thursday and Saturday, and then again the following Thursday and Saturday.

Playing the numbers game in Bad Ragaz: which players and which formation?

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Thomas Tuchel is facing the challenge of fitting the pieces of the puzzle together in Bad Ragaz. Which players play well together and, in particular, which formation? At the moment it's still all about forming impressions. "Who plays with whom is currently of no significance," said Tuchel in reference to the various centre-back pairings fielded in previous friendlies, before adding: "We made a conscious decision to mix things up so that everyone doesn't start to think we've made a final decision at this early stage. That's not the case. We want to form impressions of everyone and make use of the fact we're new."

No decision regarding formation has been made yet either. In Lucerne, Tuchel fielded a team in a 4-2-3-1 line-up - the same formation in which the team played between 2011 and 2015 as they won two league titles and reached four major finals. The fact that the team's play flowed more than last Friday in Bochum, where the team were in a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond in midfield "is completely normal", said Tuchel, "because they're used to the system". He continued: "I'm not here to change as much as possible just because there needs to be change; I want to put players in positions where they feel comfortable and where they find the space they need to showcase their talents."

In their six pre-season friendlies so far (five victories, one defeat, goal difference of 40:4), the team have made an excellent impression in attack but still need to do some fine-tuning at the back. But even in this respect the team took a step in the right direction in Lucerne. "The important thing is that we were much closer together at the back and that we kept the gaps between the lines as narrow when in possession as we did without the ball," the coach added. "Everyone was more active in the match, allowing us to be dominant, win the ball back often, put together good moves and maintain a good structure."