'Who finally passed his Dortmund test? Anthony Modeste!'

Hertha Berlin 0-1 Borussia Dortmund
(Modeste 32')
Olympiastadion, Berlin

If you ever find yourself in the Majorcan holiday resort of El Arenal at the height of the holiday season, you're likely to come across thousands of German tourists singing about … Anthony Modeste.

The song, by German Schlager singer Ikke Hüftgold, is based on a terrace chant composed by Cologne fans after Modeste's 25 goals in the 2016-17 season helped the Billy Goats qualify for Europe for the first time in 25 years. But it quickly became a cult holiday hit among German partygoers, regardless of club loyalties or indeed whether they like football at all (see below).

"Who always has a goal-fest? Anthony Modeste!" goes the song, the simple question-and-answer based rhyme continuing with such classics as:

"Who comes to training overdressed? Anthony Modeste! Who's going to win the European Song Contest? Anthony Modeste! Who drinks schnaps before his doping test? Anthony Modeste!"

The basic premise is: the Frenchman can do anything. Except, it appeared in his first two games this season, show the quality required to be Borussia Dortmund's center forward.

That changed on Saturday when Modeste headed home his first Dortmund goal, the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win away at Hertha Berlin.

Modeste's difficult start in Dortmund

Modeste's summer move from Cologne to Dortmund raised eyebrows.

The Black and Yellows were desperate for a striker after the shock of Sebastien Haller's testicular cancer diagnosis just before the start of the season, but few were convinced that Modeste provided the requisite qualities to lead the line.

The 34-year-old may have added another 20 goals to his Cologne account last season, but ten of them were headers, as Modeste played the role of the perfect target man in Steffen Baumgart's cross-heavy system.

After just three injury-hit Bundesliga games this season, Borussia Dortmund's style under Edin Terzic isn't yet discernible, but it didn't seem to have been tailored towards Modeste.

On his debut, the striker linked up once with Marco Reus but his other 22 touches of the ball resulted either in wayward shots or losses of possession. In last week's dramatic defeat to Werder Bremen, he was even more anonymous, touching the ball just 12 times in 81 minutes and failing to register a single shot on goal.

"The new arrival has looked like an alien body in his first two games," commented Kicker magazine this week.

Modeste: 'When you get the service, it's easy'

And in the opening 30 minutes away at Hertha Berlin on Saturday, that trend looked set to continue as Modeste first scuffed an effort which was saved by Oliver Christensen and then dragged a poor shot wide when one-on-one.

But then, Borussia Dortmund suddenly played to their striker's strengths – and it was perhaps no surprise that it was Modeste's former Cologne colleague Salih Özcan who provided the pinpoint cross, which the 1.87m forward glanced home with aplomb.

"I think my teammates have learnt that it will be difficult if they don't play towards their striker," Modeste told Sky after a game in which Dortmund hit 23 crosses. "But then they fed me more today, and when you get the service, it's easy."

After scoring, Modeste made a beeline for Terzic, embracing his coach on the touchline in an emotional celebration.

"The coach knows that it wasn't easy for me in the first couple of weeks, he knows how much Cologne meant to me," said Modeste. "But he's supported me and told me to keep at it, so I wanted to thank him."

Modeste: a modern striker?

It's hard for a team to avoid tailoring its style to such a presence up front. Even Julian Nagelsmann, speaking later on Saturday, admitted that Robert Lewandowski had that effect on Bayern Munich at times, and that it's good to have a more direct back-up plan.

But Lewandowski's great strength, and indeed that of the best modern strikers, is their ability to drop deeper and link up play as well, as Modeste knows.

"When you're a striker, it's not just about scoring goals; you have to work for the team as well," he told reporters in Freiburg two weeks ago – and he did that with more success against Hertha.

Just before half-time, Modeste closed down Christensen outside his box, winning the ball near the corner flag and turning the Hertha keeper before crossing dangerously. And in the second half, he pressed well to win the ball on the left wing and launch an attack which saw Karim Adeyemi come close.

Indeed, if the 10,000 Borussia Dortmund supporters wanted to add a new line to the Anthony Modeste song, they could do worse than: "Who scores goals, but can also press?"

Whether the Frenchman can develop the all-round game to lead the line effectively for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga and Champions League this season remains to be seen, but at least he's off the mark.