It was almost surreal. Signal Iduna Park, that fullest and famously atmospheric of European grounds, was reduced to a murmur on match night. You could repeatedly hear the sound of boot on ball as a crowd of 75,000 sat in near silence, a vigil only broken for a modest cheer as Jacob Bruun Larsen scored to give hosts Borussia Dortmund an early lead against Nürnberg.

Dortmund weren’t alone in the domestic season’s first Englische Woche, with supporters across the midweek Bundesliga fixtures electing not to chant, sing, drum or support in any audible way during the first 20 minutes of their respective games, in protest at the Deutscher Fußball-Bund’s (DFB) position in the standoff between the governing body and various supporter groups.

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The fans’ statement, short and to the point, was reprised on banners in enclosures at both ends of the stadiums. “DFB, DFL & Co. Ihr werdet von uns hören, oder auch nicht.” You will hear from us, or not. Talks between the authorities and supporter group representatives broke down in late August, with a coalition of supporters from different clubs releasing a terse statement accusing the DFB of having no real intention to listen, despite promises of meaningful dialogue between the two sides stretching back more than 12 months.

“We increasingly got the impression that as in previous decades, they were only using media-friendly words to avoid any actual action,” wrote the supporters collective led by fans from clubs including Hertha and Stuttgart. A joint statement in reply from the DFB and DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) dismissed many of the complaints.

Last season’s protests included those at Mainz and Dortmund against Monday night fixtures – the mass throwing of tennis balls on the pitch at the former was reprised just last weekend in Switzerland as Young Boys supporters showed their displeasure with the growing importance given to eSports by clubs, while the latter produced BVB’s lowest home attendance at a Bundesliga match for 20 years against Augsburg.

Play Video 0:22 Fans hurl video game controls on to football pitch in protest against eSports – video

At a time when the Bundesliga is marketing itself extremely effectively on the international stage on the back of its widely enjoyed fan experience in the stadiums, some of the faithful are complaining that the matchday experience for the regulars is becoming worse. The rollout of VAR, and the lack of a flow of information for the spectators inside stadiums while decisions are made, is another widely-held bugbear. The August statement from fans complained that the game was being “torn even further away from its cultural and social roots and gutted on the altar of profit and greed”.

One of the other main issues is that of collective punishment, something that many Dortmund fans feel especially strongly about. It was after disturbances surrounding the February 2017 game with RB Leipzig that BVB were fined €100,000 and forced to close the huge Südtribune terrace for a match.

While the (mainly verbal) attacks on visiting supporters outside the ground were deeply unpleasant – and ultimately outside the DFB’s and DFL’s remits having occurred outside the stadium, so the club were punished for banners criticising Red Bull that were displayed on the Yellow Wall instead – many felt that tens of thousands shouldn’t be penalised for the unhinged behaviour of a few. One Dortmund fan told the Guardian after the Nürnberg game that many locals felt that “the Red Bull PR machine had gone into overdrive” in order to punish the club and shut down real debate around the issues.

After the silence was broken at Westfalen on Wednesday, those fans showed what everyone had been missing for those opening 20 minutes, raising the roof. Lucien Favre’s team responded too, firstly taking a firm first-half grip on Nürnberg via the guile of Christian Pulisic and Marco Reus before going onto demolish their exhausted visitors in the second period.

The final 7-0 scoreline was in no way unreasonable and underlined the potential of a renewed young side that has felt its way into the campaign tentatively, despite remaining unbeaten. Reus – who scored twice, including his 100th Dortmund goal – was front and centre before exiting stage left after an hour and spoke candidly after the game about how much the reprisal of his partnership with Favre from Borussia Mönchengladbach is getting out of him.

He is a senior figure now, with teenagers Achraf Hakimi (on debut) and Jadon Sancho, who also laid on another assist, also among the goals after Bruun Larsen (who turned 20 only last week) got the ball rolling. At five games into the season, Dortmund already have 12 different Bundesliga scorers.

Favre’s team squeezed every last drop of life out of this game, perhaps pushed forward by those supporters who were doing the same after their silent start. Those supporters might feel that complicity and its role in the spectacle adds further weight to their cause.

Talking points

• Bayern Munich are now just two points ahead of Dortmund at the top of the table, having improbably and inexplicably dropped their first points of the season in Tuesday’s home game with Augsburg. Having dominated as per usual and taken the lead through Arjen Robben, Bayern were caught out by an equalising goal out of the blue, with Felix Götze – Mario’s younger brother - scoring against the club he left in the summer after coming through their academy. He dedicated his strike to his sibling, who was again left out of BVB’s 18 this week. “Mario will come back stronger,” said Felix, “like he was before.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Augsburg players celebrate the equaliser. Photograph: Lukas Barth-Tuttas/EPA

• Another man marginalised at Dortmund in recent times, Nuri Sahin, made a solid impression on his first start for Werder Bremen, who turned over Hertha 3-1 to continue their unbeaten run and hand the Berliners their first loss. They are also just two points shy of Bayern. Martin Harnik scored the first – his first of his second spell at Weser – and with old pal Max Kruse getting the clincher, the pair celebrated with a touch of morris dancing. “It’s just a folk dance from our village,” smiled Kruse.

• Schalke are in genuine crisis after slipping to a fifth straight loss at Freiburg. There was acknowledgment on both sides that the result was harsh on the visitors, though a feeling of unity and closing ranks is certainly there - veteran defender Naldo reacted furiously at former coach Markus Weinzierl’s comments on Sky that Domenico Tedesco should ask “whether it is good to think just defensively or to tailor the game to a 36-year-old”, telling Weinzierl to “shut up and find himself a job”. After Mainz provided the opposition for Leverkusen to break their losing run, Tedesco and company will hope the 05ers can do the same for them on Saturday.

• Heiko Herrlich’s side aren’t looking back after getting the monkey off the back and made it two out of two by winning at Fortuna Düsseldorf, with Kevin Volland netting a brace. Interestingly Volland spoke of Lars Bender, rather than Herrlich, inspiring his side with a team talk at the interval after a lacklustre first half. “It woke us up,” he said.