Henrikh Mkhitaryan: The Great Melancholic

What is wrong with Henrikh Mkhitaryan? Since a few weeks the body tension of the Armenian, who moved over from Donezk to Dortmund for approximately 27 Miillion Euros, can be compared to a wet sack of potatoes. Apparently without any self-confidence, the attacking midfielder is getting carried away by repeating patterns: A failed dribbling, a bad technique, misplaced passes, and bad decisions in front of the box with increasing frequency.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, BVB's great melancholic. While the team seems to try to leave the relegation zone as fast as possible, the midfielder is still a prisoner of his own phlegm. Actually, his start at Borussia Dortmund was anything but disappointing. Moving to Dortmund to replace a boy who migrated into southern latitudes, he showed promising performances, even though he was injured during pre-season 2013/2014.

In 46 appearances he scored 13 goals, had 10 assists and participated in Borussia Dortmund's comeback in the second part of the campaign. By now Mkhitaryan has only scored once against Stuttgarter Kickers in DFB-Pokal - six months have passed since then.

But what are the reasons? Henrikh Mkhitaryan is blessed with a lot of talent that cannot be overseen, still he is a mystery. During the miserable first part of the season, the Armenian was willing to structure the style of play of his struggling club, but his teammates often did not reward Mkhitaryan. Right now his body language mirrors a huge amount of resignation. In the same way the club wanted to rise during the second part of the season, he probably wanted it, too. Unfortunately a torn muscle made him missing out huge partys of the training camp.

As a consequence he was forced to sit on the substitute's bench. And while we are waiting for the breakthrough, the Armenian shows performances like last Friday against VfB Stuttgart. Coming in for the slightly injured Kevin Kampl in the second half, he did what he did for the last weeks: He initiated promising counterattacks, just to lose the ball within the next moment in a really negligent way. I am still hoping for an imprinting situation, that allows Mkhitaryan to dismiss the mental blocking, though the hope is decreasing with every game.

And while Mkhitaryan is becoming the scapegoat sooner or later - "He should join the team training of Juventus"; "We should move him to our second squad" - he probably slouches his shoulders. Or maybe not?

DerJungeMitDemBall, 23.02.2015