This season's Bundesliga title race has been one for the ages. As many as six teams have at some point found themselves with a realistic chance to finish the season as champions of Germany. During this matchday, two of those teams faced off with Borussia Dortmund hosting RB Leipzig. Dortmund emerged with a 2-1 victory; it was their eighth consecutive league victory and provisionally took them to the top of the league pending Bayern Munich's later away match against VfB Stuttgart.
Dortmund opened the scoring around the midway point of the first half through a Marco Reus penalty. They would go on to enter the break with a 2-0 lead after Emre Can increased their lead in the 39th minute. In the second half, Leipzig would reduce the deficit with Emil Forsberg getting Die Bullen on the board, but they would not be able to score an equalizer after that.
Leipzig's loss might very well have ended any hope they may have had to win this season's Bundesliga. With just 11 matches left to be played, Leipzig are now seven points off the lead. While that might not necessarily sound like an excessive margin, so tight and hard-fought has the 2022-23 Bundesliga been that this gap could realistically be too much for the Saxony-based club to overcome.
At this point, the question is now "what could Leipzig have done differently this season?" One key area where Leipzig could certainly have done better has to be the off-season transfer window. David Raum and Timo Werner have not lived up to their transfer fees, while Abdou Diallo, a loan acquisition from Paris Saint-Germain, has been ravaged by injury all season long. Ironically, Senegalese centre-back Diallo was brought in as cover for the equally injury-prone Lukas Klostermann.
To make matters even worse, Leipzig sold or loaned out many players who would have likely been of great assistance in this final title run-in. The most notable of these has to be Ademola Lookman, who left the club for the astonishingly paltry fee of €9 million. The Nigerian striker is in the midst of a breakout season, having already notched 12 league goals in 23 Serie A matches. In one season, Lookman has almost matched his prior career tally of 16 goals in major European league play. Compounding this was the fact that Leipzig also lost a slew of capable players including Angeliño, Alexander Sørloth, Brian Brobbey, and Tyler Adams. In return for their many departures, Leipzig received a total of just over €74 million - well below the total value these players should have collectively fetched.
Of course, league titles are never solely won or lost in the boardroom. It can't be denied that several key Leipzig players simply have not lived up to expectations. Perhaps the most notable culprit is centre-back Joško Gvardiol. After an excellent World Cup in which he became one of the tournament's breakout stars, the Croatian has not yet adjusted to his newly heightened expectations. This, of course, does not discount the fact that World Cup fatigue could be taking its toll on him - but it's now been several months. For how much longer can we realistically give him a pass for that?
Adding to this point, players such as Raum, Mohamed Simakan, Marcel Halstenberg, and Kevin Kampl have all seen obvious declines when compared to their performances of last season. What makes this even more worrying is the fact that Raum, Simakan, and Halstenberg accompany Gvardiol in the backline. The numbers bear this fact out: after 23 league matches, Leipzig have conceded 29 goals, tying them for fourth-fewest with VfL Wolfsburg. Last season, however, Leipzig tied league champions Bayern for fewest goals conceded with 37.
Other matters which made things more difficult for Leipzig were the early-season firing of then-head coach Domenico Tedesco as well as the death of controversial club owner Dietrich Mateschitz. Though Leipzig's setup and methods of operation have always been a divisive topic across German football, the club had always been relatively stable internally - until now. Ever since entering the Bundesliga in 2016, this might be the furthest off the rails they have gone. Although by many metrics this has not been a bad season for Leipzig by any means, such is the nature of the Bundesliga this season that even just a few errors could torpedo a team's potential title bid - RB Leipzig might just have experienced this first-hand.
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