1. Dortmund Star Aubameyang Stunningly Not A Factor On
Matchday 20
February 11, 2016/in Soccer /By: Santosh Venkataraman (http://goo.gl/OTSauc)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is one of Europe’s most dynamic players and the current
African Footballer of the Year (CAF). He is the Bundesliga’s top goal scorer with 20 and
struck again Tuesday with a dynamic go-ahead goal in Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 victory
at VfB Stuttgart in the quarter-finals of the German Cup.
That’s what makes what happened to him Saturday on matchday 20 so stunning when
the Gabonese international was held to a measly 12 touches overall with no shots at the
goal before being substituted after 72 minutes in a scoreless draw at Hertha Berlin in a
2 vs 3 matchup. This is from a player who is second in the league with 76 shot attempts
and not had fewer than 16 touches in a game before that this season.
How did they do it? Well here is what Aubameyang’s heat map looked like in Berlin on
Saturday:

3. Compare that to a typical Aubameyang heat map such as the week before in a 2-0 victory at
Ingolstadt in which he had 32 touches and three shot attempts with two goals.
You can see that Aubameyang was kept out of the danger zone, where he averages
2.82 shots per 90 minutes for 71.4 percent of his attempts. In the Hertha match, he did
not even touch the ball once in that area where he is so lethal. He had just one touch in
the 18-yard box.
Much has been made of Dortmund’s star duo of Aubameyang and Marco Reus. It’s
interesting to note that there has only been one assist from one to the other among their
combined 29 league goals. Aubameyang has yet to score off an assist from Reus,
although the latter has created 12 shots for the former for the most among any set of
BVB teammates.

4. Coach Thomas Tuchel will have to go back to the drawing board to try to solve Berlin’s
defence and he has another chance since the teams will meet in April in a German Cup
semi-final.
Photo By: AP Photo/Matthias Schrader