Tuchel insists Gotze's still vital, condemns weekend crowd violence

Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel still has faith in Mario Gotze despite the World Cup winner's lack of playing time, and expressed his disappointment with the crowd violence against RB Leipzig supporters at the weekend.

The man who scored the extra-time winner in the 2014 World Cup final has only featured for 24 minutes in the last three games, and with no apparent injury in that spell he is seemingly out of favour in the eyes of Tuchel.

But the 43-year-old insists that Gotze will have his time to shine.

"What really helps now is patience, diligence, and hard work," Tuchel told a news conference, as reported by EPSN FC's Stephan Uersfeld. "I am convinced that we'll need him.

Tuchel cleared the air regarding a falling out with the player and stated that the midfield spark just needs to raise his confidence levels.

"There's no row between us. It's a decision for now. Others have a bit more confidence right now, and he's a bit behind. But he will give proof of his talent."

Gotze missed Dortmund's scheduled training session on Tuesday with reports of a muscular problem and may not feature in Wednesday's clash with Hertha Berlin in the DFB Pokal.

"It will be tight for tomorrow," Tuchel explained. "Gonzalo Castro, who plays in the same position, is also back in training."

Security measures outside of the Westfalenstadion will be on high alert for the meeting with Hertha Berlin following the violence at the weekend that saw Dortmund fans attack Leipzig fans, including women and children.

Dortmund police filed 28 charges for offences that included concealing explosives, assault, dangerous bodily injury, damage to property, and theft.

Tuchel criticised the fan violence, stating: "it must be possible to go to a stadium with children and family, especially at Dortmund."

But he did emphasise the fact that it was a few bad eggs, refusing to call Europe's largest terrace known as the "Yellow Wall" a "wall of hate."

"I have not perceived it as a wall of hate, I perceived it as very emotional, very supportive," he said. "I saw the banners, just the sheer number of them. But I did not read them. And there is a major difference between displaying banners and what happened outside the stadium.

"It hurts the soul, and it hurts the fairness, but I did not see a wall of hate," Tuchel continued.

"There is a part of me which is a coach, which lives emotions. And the 'yellow wall' is just unique in Europe. We don't want defamatory banners and we don't want violence."

Tuchel ended by saying: "a line was massively crossed by our fans and we condemn it."