FC Köln - Borussia Dortmund Preview: Big names return for BVB

With the household names returning to full fitness Borussia Dortmund travel to newly-promoted Köln, who are equally as keen to kick-start their season.

Köln had made a fine start to the season, but have tailed off in recent weeks. After a win and three draws in their first four games, Peter Stöger's men couldn't have made a better start. However after three successive losses and a lack of goals, the international break couldn't have come at a better time. Their defence that had not conceded in the opening four matches then shipped six in three and lost 3-2 to Aachen in a friendly. Patrick Helmes is the only major injury problem for Stöger's side, who have been without him since pre-season. His return - combined with his clinical finishing, passion to play for his boyhood club and eye for goal - will be eagerly anticipated.

Dusan Svento, Thomas Bröker und Kazuki Nagasawa are also back to full fitness, which the Austrian described as a, "massive boost, it makes us optimistic." The boss commented on die Schwarzgelben's start to the season: "Dortmund have played outstanding in the Champions League and their team is far better than is shown on the table. Jürgen Klopp has developed his team well in recent years and has the knack that he is able to get players who fit into his game's philosophy."

Three competitive games without a goal is of great concern to effzeh's fans, but Marcel Risse's recent form has given them hope. In defence it has been a rare run of goals conceded for the Rhein club, who conceded a record-low amount of goals in the 2.Bundesliga. Miso Brecko should return to the starting eleven in place of Pawel Olkowski, while a lacklustre Matthias Lehmann could drop to the bench in place of Adam Matuschyk.

Sitting just one place above Saturday's opponents, in thirteenth, Borussia Dortmund will be desperate to start as they mean to go on from now. Despite a 2-0 Supercup win over Bayern Munich, things have been downhill domestically ever since. In Europe, BVB have two wins from two and travel to Turkey on Wednesday, aiming to achieve the perfect start to Group D. In the Bundesliga, they've only won twice times and sit a huge 10 points behind table-toppers Bayern. Defeats to HSV and Mainz amongst others, as well as a shaky defence, mean they have an immense amount of catching up to do.

Jurgen Klopp also spoke about the need to eradicate errors leading to goals, of which BVB have committed five, so having an almost fully fit backline will do wonders. He also said that he would take the blame for the start to the season, even with BVB's horrendous injury record, but remained upbeat about the coming weeks, "Now is the beginning of the rest of the season. We couldn’t pick up any points in the past two weeks, but we also couldn’t drop any.” The injury crisis has finally let up, as Klopp detailed the returning players:

"Marco [Reus], [Sebastian] Kehl, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan and Ilkay [Gundogan] are all training regularly and will be available," he said. "[Reus and Gundogan] are able to play the football Dortmund demand [but] we must not believe that just because other names appear on the team sheet, we automatically win games.

"There is nothing to worry about [Shinji] Kagawa's concussion. He trained yesterday (Wednesday). Erik Durm has a light cold from his trip with the national team, everything's okay with Mats [Hummels]. [Ciro] Immobile got a knock on his calf, but that also shouldn't be a problem." Unfortunately for Dortmund, they are still missing four first team players. Nuri Sahin, Oliver Kirch, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Marcel Schmelzer all remain out of action, but should return within a few weeks. Erik Durm will replace Schmelzer and Sven Bender should be partnered by the returning Sebastian Kehl in the heart of midfield.