Match Ratings: Borussia Dortmund Hapless in 2-1 Loss to RB Leipzig

Borussia Dortmund have got the better of RB Leipzig in the majority of their meetings in recent seasons, but that came to an end on Saturday, as Leipzig outplayed BVB on their way to a 2-1 victory.

It wasn’t as though RB Leipzig were playing incredible football, but they were certainly a lot better than Dortmund, particularly spurred on by the man that has stepped up to become their star player. If we were rating RB Leipzig’s players as well, Christopher Nkunku would get special mention. He absolutely tore Dortmund’s defense to bits. He was the difference-maker, getting a goal and an assist along the way. It was the kind of player Dortmund seemed to be lacking over the weekend.

To some extent, this was to be expected. BVB are carrying a whole host of injuries, and they were up against a really good side. But it was still a depressing 90 minutes of football.

Here are our match ratings:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Paul: 7

Kobel keeps getting good ratings despite conceding lots of goals. A more thoughtful person might ask some questions, but I’m not that guy.

Manuel Akanji

Paul: 5

Mats Hummels

Paul: 5

Marin Pongracic

Paul: 3

Pongragic had a rough day Saturday. He was partly responsible for RB Leipzig’s first goal and he was particularly poor in possession. After a really good start to life at Dortmund, he’s had a couple bad performances recently. I don’t think it’s a big concern, but we’re starting to see his limitations.

Thomas Meunier

Paul: 6

The ball for Marco Reus’s goal was absolutely incredible. It was one of the few positives that could be taken from the weekend’s game.

Thorgan Hazard

Paul: 5

Axel Witsel

Paul: 4

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 6

He gave it his all, but he didn’t have a lot of luck on Saturday. He looked tired, and it’s no surprise given the minutes he’s chalked up at such a young age. Unfortunately he’s unlikely to get any rest any time soon. BVB could really do with him not picking up any injuries!

Julian Brandt

Paul: 5

Brandt has been playing really well recently, but he struggled a bit today. He was a little too wasteful in possession. That said, I think he had to try and make things happen, so some of that wasteful passing should be attributed to that fact.

Marco Reus

Paul: 6

Donyell Malen

Paul: 3

My guy continues to struggle. He just didn’t offer a whole lot on Saturday. At all. But to be clear, he hasn’t even played 700 minutes of Bundesliga football yet. He’s got plenty of time to make good, and the declarations that he is a “bust” (and all the other negativity) are extremely premature. He’s been poor. But stop extrapolating until he has had longer to settle, and until we’ve seen him play more minutes.

Substitutes

Ansgar Knauff

Paul: 6

Youssoufa Moukoko

Paul: 5

Reinier

N/A

Dan-Axel Zagadou

N/A

Overall

Paul: 4

I’m not going to be too hard on BVB after this loss, because they are dealing with a pretty extensive injury crisis, and they were also coming off of a tough game where they spent an hour with only ten men. That said, they were not good. They could barely string a couple passes together, and they wilted under RB Leipzig’s pressure consistently. Leipzig deserved the win, and it didn’t seem like Borussia Dortmund had any real answer to them. Hopefully we see a little more coherence against Stuttgart on Saturday.