“?Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa believes the club had a successful season and bounced back from a disappointing campaign the year before.
Kagawa returned to Dortmund in 2014 after two years away at Manchester United, where he picked up a Premier League winners medal along the way.
Having spent his first season back under Jurgen Klopp, the German side were under new management during his second season in the form of Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel took over last summer after a lacklustre end to Klopp’s tenure with the club in which they finished in 7th place. Whereas Tuchel was able to guide Dortmund to second place, concluding the season with a record number of points for a team finishing as runners-up of the Bundesliga.
Speaking to “?FourFourTwo Kagawa said, “We had both good and not so good experiences, but generally things were fairly stable throughout the year.
“It’s not good to compare to last year and while things weren’t great then, this year we could regain some confidence with some good results. Of course, after a tough season the year before it’s often difficult to recover, but we started well and we kept going from there.”
When asked about the thought of catching Bayern Munich during a campaign in which Dortmund eventually finished ten points behind the champions and later conceded the German Cup to them, Kagawa responded “I didn’t really focus on that. It wasn’t really a case of us not being able to catch them, but more so that they didn’t really give us much of a chance.
“We managed to keep within five points of them for much of the season, but then we drew with Schalke [2-2 in April] and that made things difficult. We thought we still had a chance as they had a tough schedule in the Champions League, but it’s no use talking about what ifs. Ultimately they won when they needed to and we couldn’t get close enough.”
Although Kagawa concedes his side couldn’t do enough this year, does he believe it is possible for them to close the gap on Bayern Munich next year?
“Absolutely it is, but of course we’ll have to raise our own level and maintain a good standard throughout the season. The team is trying to adjust the way we play depending on the opposition, and the manager is also trying to adapt formations and tactics depending on the situation.
“As he likes to vary things, the players have to make sure they can adapt. Especially during the second half of the season there were a lot of changes in formation and players, but we kept winning regardless and things are becoming stable.”
The Japanese international went on to score nine times in 29 Bundesliga appearances last season but didn’t have a particular highlight that stood out for him.
“There’s really not anything that stands out specifically, but throughout the year I made sure that I was always well prepared for training and matches, so when I look back on things as a whole the season was a positive one.”
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