Sancho and Haaland: Centerpieces of BVB's shop window

Potential and development have increasingly become the Bundesliga's buzzwords in recent years, with several clubs seeking to promote and improve players rather than try to keep financial pace with the European heavyweights. 

Borussia Dortmund have, in many ways, led this charge. Though their spending power dwarfs most of the league, they've supplemented it by polishing prospects to attract the mega rich clubs abroad. Christian Pulisic and Ousmane Dembele are just two of several recent examples.

One issue with such a strategy is that BVB know they won't neccessarily get to see the best of the talent they have. But after yet another pair of outrageous displays from Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland in Saturday's 5-0 win over Union Berlin, it's becoming clear that these two aren't just excellent young players, they're excellent players. The only ingredient missing is time.

Sancho's performance levels have barely dropped since he broke in to the first team at the start of last season and with his strike on Saturday, he became the first teenager to score 25 Bundesliga goals.

More to come?

"Jadon has enormous potential to improve. But he's fantastic already," said his coach Lucien Favre after the win. 

The prospect of further improvement from a 19-year-old who already has 12 goals and 13 assists from 18 league games this season is a frightening prospect for fullbacks and a mouthwatering one for the rest of us.

But Favre is right on both counts. Sancho was electric at the Westfalenstadion. His ability to beat a man one-on-one immediately catches the eye but it's his near-flawless decision making in the final third that really marks him out, while his finishing is much improved.

But somehow, he's not the 19-year-old everyone is talking about right now, which is testament to the staggering impact of January signing Erling Haaland. The Norwegian has just become the first player to score seven goals in his first three Bundesliga appearances and has managed that total from just eight shots in 136 minutes. 

Instictive understanding

Just as he did with Marco Reus, Sancho has struck up the sort of telepathic understanding with Haaland that makes a partnership unplayable. The Englishman had a critical role in both his new teammate's strikes, with a simple but well-weighted pass allowing Julian Brandt to whip in the cross for Haaland's first and a surging run inside setting up Brandt to backheel brilliantly in to his path for his second.

"We combine very well and we’re able to bring that into the games and help the team,” said Sancho. “I’m really happy that he’s here.”

Both Haaland's finishes were first-time strikes. The former Red Bull Salzburg striker does not look like a man who hesitates and, though it's very early days, exudes the singleminded, clinical and even somewhat selfish nature required of the top strikers. After the game his skipper, Marco Reus, described it as a "greed for goals". 

A lack of ruthlessness has long been a charge thrown at Favre's Dortmund side but, helped perhaps by the fearlessness of their youth and lack of past failures, their two youngest players are leading the way.

With BVB now just three points off the Bundesliga summit, a first title since 2011-12 is a possibility. But the next six weeks include trips to Leverkusen and Mönchengladbach as well as the Revierderby against Schalke and the two-legged tie against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

Those clashes with the French side will offer a reminder of the sharks that will soon be circling around Dortmund's two brightest talents. For now, Dortmund's shop window is working well for players and club alike but they won't always get it quite so right. There's an argument to suggest that, with Sancho in particular likely to move on soon, it's critical for Dortmund to make the most of their dynamic duo in terms of trophies and not just transfers.