Getting to know the new Borussia Dortmund ahead of the DFL SuperCup

Another season of Bayern Munich football starts this Sunday wit the DFL SuperCup. Much like many of the past editions of the DFL SuperCup, this one sees another rendition of Der Klassiker. Bayern vs Dortmund. Top dog against not top dog.

At least this time we don’t have to endure anothround of editorials on how Bayern Munich are stealing Dortmund’s best players given that two of Bayern’s brightest young talents, Mario Götze and Sebastian Rode, both made a proverbial trek down the Rhine this offseason.

Taking us through a revamped and reloaded Borussia Dortmund is Fear the Wall’s Brain Meyers who walks us through their new backline and what to expect from their newest additions.

Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic are gone. How is Dortmund's newly revamped defensive corps doing these days?

Losing Hummels is definitely a big loss for BVB. To replace him we brought on Marc Bartra from Barcelona. While Bartra had difficulty getting minutes at Barca, he is still a young high potential CB from their legendary academy. He will most likely team up with Sokratis to be our starting centre back pairing.

Although Neven’s injury is unfortunate, we have plenty of backups to choose from this year. Matthias Ginter and Sven Bender are both first team players who have the ability to play at CB. Midfielder Mikel Merino from CA Osasuna has also been playing at CB during preseason. As for fullbacks, we still have most of the names everyone's used to seeing at BVB, Schmelzer, Piszczek, and Durm. Felix Passlack and incoming Euro 2016 champion Raphael Guerreiro are also fullback option as well.

How is Mario Götze fitting back in at Dortmund and how does his presence change the team's attacking plans?

Gotze has been welcomed back warmly at BVB by the players according to reports. He's recently was played out of position during a preseason which was a odd choice by Tuchel. He was played behind Shinji Kagawa in the midfield and he definitely didn't look comfortable.

Tuchel has been playing a lot of players out of position during preseason, and we'll have to see if it's just a teaching exercise or he actually thinks these are the best places for guys like Gotze. I expect Gotze to be a very important piece of BVB's newly revamped attack this year... as long as he's played in a attacking role.

On a scale of 1 to Aubameyang, how terrifying is Ousman Dembele and what should Bayern Munich fans be worried about?

Dembele seems to be the real deal. He's been very good in preseason so far, and is one of the only players I've ever seen match Auba for speed on the pitch. He’s still young and has issues connected to that, but he seems to be on his way to being a real force in the Bundesliga. So yes be very afraid, until you buy him

Please tell me about Sebastian Rode. I am missing my favorite player terribly.

Rode has looked good in preseason so far. I expect that he will have a large role in BVB's plans this season as a holding midfielder alongside Julian Weigl. When our lineups go more attacking Rode won't have much of a place on the team, but even then he’s our first choice midfield sub when we go up in a game.