Man of the Match Poll: Borussia Dortmund Cruise to Victory over Hertha Berlin

Having faced two extremely tough, physically draining matches over the last week, having to go full throttle for the full 90 minutes against both Bayern Munich and Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund were in need of a game played at a much slower tempo. Thankfully, they were up against a Hertha Berlin side that have been struggling of late, and has found itself dragged into a relegation scrap. Borussia Dortmund ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, with goals from Julian Brandt and Youssoufa Moukoko, and a helping hand from Hertha’s goalkeeper Rune Jarstein, who chose to balance out some excellent saves against efforts from Jude Bellingham and Emre Can, by some extremely questionable goalkeeping up against the shots from Brandt and Moukoko. It’s nice to watch a game low on drama, and for the goalkeeping gaffes to work in our favor!

Here are the nominations for Man of the Match:

Mateu Morey

Morey had over 1,000 touches and 120% of BVB’s offense ran through him on the right-hand side. He was integral to everything Borussia Dortmund did in offense, and whenever questions were asked in defense he coped pretty well. He came off after 70 minutes but after that performance his place in the nominations was never in doubt.

Jude Bellingham

Bellingham is somehow both a nimble and graceful dancer and a human battering ram. He also never stops running. Another great game from the 17-year-old, and one of the biggest weaknesses in his game, his passing, showed real signs of improvement too.

Marco Reus

Reus had a number of chances that didn’t quite come off, but he was also involved in everything BVB did in the final third. He is no longer the goal threat he has been in previous seasons, but he continues to contribute a whole lot to the Borussia Dortmund offense.

The only downside from today was that Marco Reus and Mats Hummels left the game with injuries. Hopefully they’re okay!

Mahmoud Dahoud

The fourth choice seemed a little less obvious to me. It wasn’t that BVB were otherwise poor, there was just a number of pretty good performances that were harder to distinguish between. I think an argument could be made for Julian Brandt or Emre Can (I also thought about giving it to Moukoko for the hell of it), but in the end I’ve gone for Dahoud. He was asked to operate in a role that is slightly outside his comfort zone, acting as the base of the midfield three, and he showed the maturity and discipline to temper his roaming instincts and sew everything together.