Looking back at last season, Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels has taken an extremely self-critical stance. "The second half of last season was probably the worst I have ever played in my life so far," said the central defender in an interview with German sports magazine "kicker".

"The first half of the 2014/15 season felt and looked sluggish," explained Hummels. "Weight wise it was a disaster for me. I comfort eat when I get frustrated and because the second half of the season was full of frustration, I ended up in a vicious cycle."

The 26-year-old says thanks to a sensible diet and more time spent running during preseason training camp he has lost weight and is in completely different shape than in 2014. "I'm a bit quicker now. I don't really notice the loss of one kilogram when I run, but I do when it's more than one."

At the start of 2015, all signs pointed towards a Hummels departure but a conversation with the new Head Coach Thomas Tuchel convinced him to stay. "We talked during a period of time where I was considering my future. I liked both what he said and the way he said it," said Hummels. Tuchel was direct in his manner and informed Hummels of his individual mistakes, something that struck a cord with the defender.

"If a coach wants to convince me to stay, I like it that he didn't sugarcoat things, but spoke directly. There were days where I would have liked to go and then there were days I wanted to stay. If I move, I need to be 100 percent convinced. I need to know it works on all levels and that wasn't the case this year."

Too scared of Bayern

Challenging Bayern will remain a tough task for Dortmund who is seen as Germany's second biggest club. Hummels though, believes the rest of the Bundesliga must also step up to the plate when it comes to the record-champions. "In Germany, too many clubs are too scared of Bayern, both verbally as well as in a sporting sense. They would do well to stop that," said Hummels, who himself was a youth player at Bayern Munich between 1995 and 2008. "You often got the feeling that teams had already given up before the game against Bayern had started. Tuchel's Mainz wasn't one [of those teams] though, I noticed that."

On the question of captaincy, Hummels is ready to continue or hand over the armband. "If Tuchel wants another captain, then I have would have no problem with that. I noticed last season as captain that a lot of attention was paid to unnecessary things, and I don't need that."

With his feet back on Dortmund ground, Hummels looks ready to get BVB back where they want to be. "It [Tuchel hailing Dortmund as a top-four challenger] makes sense not to push the expectation too high when at a new club," said Hummels. "For us players though, only spots one to three, or at least four, are the ones that count and we are working towards that."

jh/asz (SID)