Match Ratings: BVB Scrape Draw Against Hoffenheim

Borussia Dortmund’s poor run of results continues. Not only did they drop more points, making the race for top four even harder, they also played some very mediocre football. It’s hard to watch BVB games at the moment, and it is pretty hard to write about them too. At some point you get the sense you’re repeating yourself.

Anyway, here are our ratings from yesterday’s game...

Starting XI

Marwin Hitz

Paul: 3

Hitz has made at least one mistake in every game he has played in this recent stretch. Few fans have that much confidence in Roman Burki, but he appears to be a significant upgrade on Marwin Hitz.

Sarah: 3

Mats Hummels

Paul: 4

Sarah: 3

With all the talk from Edin Terzić about looking to the club vets, Hummels let everyone down. This burns even more given he wore the captain’s armband. Focusing on the ball and not the man is a rookie mistake and directly led to a searing Hoffenheim goal.

Manuel Akanji

Paul: 5

Sarah: 4

See my comments on Hummels above. True, he’s not of the same seasoned caliber as Hummels, but he’s just as responsible for letting that goal happen. Still, he’s a professional and has more experience (by comparison) than some of the kids he plays alongside. Do better, Akanji.

Emre Can

Paul: 6

Sarah: 7

The Candyman played right back again this week and, again, he turned in a solid performance. His tackles and passes into the box are quality and provide one of the few constants amongst the BVB squad right now. This guy deserves to wear the captain’s armband.

Raphael Guerreiro

Photo by MARTIN MEISSNER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Paul: 6

Sarah: 5.5

Nothing really remarkable about Rapha’s turn, but he gets spicy points for being so quick to defend Haaland when the Hoffenheim players swarmed after his goal.

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Thomas Delaney

Paul: 4

Delaney has looked solid recently, but I thought he really struggled yesterday. He left the defense exposed too often.

Sarah: 4.5

Delaney struggled to find his rhythm in the match and while his marking of Sebastian Rudy may have contributed to a Hoffenheim goal, he was pretty much acting as a party of one in the midfield.

Gio Reyna

Paul: 5

Sarah: 4

Five words: Give. The. Kid. A. Rest.

Julian Brandt

Paul: 4

Sarah: 4

Brandt is a player we want to root for because he clearly has talent, but the application is where it gets bungled up. He tried to create chances and find spaces, however he was more quiet in this matchup and that helps nothing. It was the right decision to sub him out in the 60th minute.

Jadon Sancho

Paul: 7

The goal was really well taken. It’s a shame that Sancho’s return to form coincides with everyone else’s decline.

Sarah: 6.5

Sancho’s hot streak continues and his efforts helped keep the Black and Yellows in the game. He had a great attitude on the pitch and seemed to be the only one to not come to a halt just because he didn’t have the ball. While his goal was lovely, his quality did seem to taper off as the match progressed.

Erling Haaland

Paul: 6

His finishing wasn’t at its best yesterday, but he got an all important goal to claim a point.

Sarah: 4.5

The kid is, undoubtedly, a scoring machine. Nonetheless, he could stand to take some etiquette/sportsmanlike conduct courses. As he stood with arms raised, in protest over the ref not calling a penalty, I watched 6 seconds tick by and then Hoffenheim equalized a minute later. Would the chance for buildup been available to Hoffenheim had Haaland stopped his fussing soon after the ref’s quick decision?

Substitutes

Marco Reus

Paul: 6

Sarah: 5

His play was bland, but his spice level was five alarm!

Mahmoud Dahoud

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Dahoud was active after being subbed on, but there were too many hits and misses in his delivery to make any significant difference.

Youssoufa Moukoko

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

His time on the pitch lacked what any successful striker needs: chances.

Nico Schulz

N/A

Overall

Paul: 4

Rubbish. I’m getting bored of saying the same thing every ratings, so I’m not going to bother. It is increasingly difficult to see BVB turning this around and claiming a top four spot.

Sarah: 4

I can’t decide what I’m more bitter about: this match or not being one of 1,000 lucky winners of the extremely exclusive Pink Candy Kraft Mac and Cheese. While both, presumably, leave a terrible aftertaste, the difference is that it’s anticipated from the latter. We see flashes of the team’s brilliance and ingenuity, but it is not impactful or meaningful. This leaves players, fans and top brass alike feeling frustrated. Again.

Your Thoughts?

Do you agree with our ratings? Leave your thoughts below.