Dortmund lost the plot – Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel felt Borussia Dortmund “completely lost the plot” in their frustrating 1-1 draw against Augsburg and says the match summed up his side’s hit-and-miss first half of the Bundesliga season.

The impressive Ousmane Dembele equalised for Dortmund early in the second half after Ji Dong-won put the visitors ahead, with Tuchel’s men ensuring they finished 2016 with an unbeaten Bundesliga record at Signal Iduna Park.

However, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a rare off night in front of goal and Andre Schurrle also missed a great opportunity as Dortmund failed to capitalise on the first-versus-second clash between Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig on Wednesday.

Dortmund are nine points adrift of top spot, but a win for Bayern or Leipzig will mean the gap is extended to 12 before the mid-season break and Tuchel, who was taking charge of his 50th league clash for Dortmund, rued his team’s inconsistency.

“We started very well and then completely lost the plot,” he told reporters. “Why I do not know.

“We made an incredible number of errors.  We are regularly punished and that makes things difficult at times. We need consistency in the competitions.

“I think that the game really reflects the season so far. In almost every game there are phases where we miss things.

“We made some very simple mistakes, bad passes and simple fouls. After we secured the ball, we switched very badly from defence to offence.

“In these 30 minutes of the first half Augsburg scored a goal. The frequency is incredible. I think it’s the seventh game in a row where we had to come back from one goal down.”