Analysis: Relentless Dortmund attack too much for Schalke

Borussia Dortmund's resurgence is leaving us devoid of superlatives. The kind of football that propelled Jürgen Klopp's side to the championship has returned and the club's relegation woes look to have eased exponentially.

Since the return of the season after a six-week winter hiatus, Dortmund have sharpened their attack and have won four of six, leaving them seven points adrift of a European position and eight out of the Champions League spots.

With the chips really down, Dortmund responded. Wins against three relegation candidates lifted the team out of the drop zone. And they were clearly motivated to continue that run when their fiercest rivals, Schalke, visited on Saturday.

The highly-charged derby between these two neighbors was more of a slaughtering than a contest - Dortmund ran out comfortable 3-0 winners, despite waiting until the last quarter of an hour to convert one of their 30 shots on goal.

Freedom for Dortmund play

Schalke's defensive structure was bootless, with Dortmund continuing to exploit the same spaces over and over throughout the 90 minutes. An interesting but ultimately misguided Roberto Di Matteo strategic wrinkle was for Schalke to retreat deep, allowing Dortmund time on the ball before they entered the opposition half.

This was counterproductive. Mats Hummels dictated the game and was able to push forward from central defense at will to pick out his team-mates over the top. This was compounded by the discomfort of Schalke's back-three - Benedikt Höwedes, Roman Neustädter and Matija Nastasic - when moving backwards towards their own goal.

Schalke did a woeful job of clearing Dortmund's long balls, which often fell to the feet of swarming men in yellow and black in the support of their attacking triumvirate.

As Dortmund turned up the heat, a goal seemed to be a matter of time. The chances included: Nastasic denying Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the opener with a block, Marco Reus striking the bar and then arrowing a shot just a few inches past the post and Timon Wellenreuther's point-blank save from the Gabon striker after the break.

When there's a hole in your drainage, you'd expect the plumber to tighten some bolts. The plumber in this case, Di Matteo, couldn't stop the flow of Dortmund's attacks.

The only thing Dortmund fans can carp about is that their team waited until the last quarter of an hour before turning their dominance into three quick-fire goals by Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Reus.

Gündogan dominates

Similarly profiting from Schalke's non-existent pressing was Ilkay Gündogan, who only had to drop back a few yards to escape the Royal Blues' front two.

Gündogan played the starring role as chief protagonist at the heart of Dortmund's midfield. The 24-year-old midfielder has been slowly progressing to this type of performance after more than 16 months out injured.

Last week's commanding performance at Stuttgart was just a glimpse of the all-encompassing midfielder at his dynamic best. In trademark style, the midfielder burst from midfield and scored the second in a 3-2 win.

Versus Schalke in the 167th Ruhr derby, Gundogan was at the forefront. Snarling, snapping, and thrusting Dortmund forward from deep positions - the midfielder was the ball-winner, the executor and the man with the assist for the second goal on 79 minutes.

Replaced in the 77th minute by Matthias Ginter, the midfielder's exhaustive display in the engine room powered this Dortmund team to three points. Jürgen Klopp's men are inching closer to the Champions League positions, whcih only a few weeks ago seemed hopelessly out of reach.