Match Ratings: Marco Reus Dominates Against Mönchengladbach

Dortmund took out some frustration on Gladbach yesterday by beating Marco Rose's former club 6-0. It was a Marco Reus masterclass from start to finish, as the skipper tallied three assists and scored two goals of his own. Donyell Malen, Youssoufa Moukkoko, Marius Wolf, and Emre Can also found the back of the net in what ended up an embarrassing match for BMG. Dortmund, however, will head into Thursday's Europa League match against Rangers with some renewed energy. Or at least we all hope they will.

Here are some ratings:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Nick: 8.5

It sounds silly given the final score, but Kobel was a match-winner on Sunday. He made some spectacular saves in the first 30 minutes, which allowed his teammates to settle things down and control the remainder of the game.

Paul: 7

Zac: 8.5

Don’t mind Paul.

Emre Can

Nick: 7.5

During his time at BVB, Can has consistently looked his best at right-back or on the right side of a back. He played a hybrid of both of those roles against BMG, and he once again looked the part.

Paul: 6

Zac: 7

Perfect advert for the return to a 3 or 5 back.

Mats Hummels

Nick: 7.5

Aussenrist.

Paul: 7

Zac: 7

Like Brett Favre pulling on the Vikings uniform, it was great to see Hummels back in the quarterback role.

Dan-Axel Zagadou

Nick: 6

Dan held his own in this match before his injury. Hopefully, he makes a speedy recovery.

Paul: 6

Zac: 5

Do not renew. He was playing just badly enough to break again. Enough is enough.

Raphael Guerreiro

Nick: 7

Rose seems to be making a real effort to get Guerreiro involved in the attack. It's about time.

Paul: 7

Zac: 6.5

I do not remember seeing Guerreiro that much, but he did great to widen play and provide options.

Mahmoud Dahoud

Nick: 7

Paul: 8

Mo created a ton of chances, pushed the tempo of the game, and all-around controlled everything. While he wasn’t the most loud performance, he was still brilliant.

Zac: 8

His long-range effort when everyone else was scoring was pure banter.

Jude Bellingham

Nick: 7

He had a fairly quiet day by his standards, but his pass to start the break for Moukoko's goal was inch-perfect.

Paul: 7

Zac: 7

Thorgan Hazard

Nick: 6

Paul: 6

Zac: 6.5

Hazard showed some good control in tight areas, worked well with Emre Can, and fought hard to keep possession. I know he might have pissed off Marco Rose, but it’s time to give Hazard the same chance Brandt received.

Gio Reyna

Nick: 6.5

I think we all thought the worst when we saw Gio crying on the ground just after Marco scored the opener. Thankfully, it sounds like the injury isn't as bad as we feared. Hope to see him back on the pitch soon.

Paul: 6

Zac: 7

Rest up, big man.

Marco Reus

Nick: 10

Since moving back to his preferred central spot in Marco Rose's new system, Reus has been playing like Dortmund's best player again. However, against his former team, he looked like the best player in the Bundesliga. It was a perfect match for the captain.

Paul: 10

I’m always reluctant to ever go as far as giving scores that are this high (or those that are correspondingly low) because they should be suitably rare. Reus’s performance yesterday was one of those rare performances for which these kinds of ratings are reserved. His two goals and three assists will make the headlines, but the rest of his game was equally brilliant.

Zac: 10

Truly a remarkable performance from a remarkable player.

Donyell Malen

Nick: 7.5

I thought Malen played really well in the first half. He combined well with Guerreiro on the opening goal and scored the second confidently enough. He blended into the background in the second half, but overall it was a good day from number 21.

Paul: 7

Malen sometimes seems a little clumsy, and it’s clear he’s still finding his way at BVB, but he’s becoming more and more effective.

Zac: 7.5

It seems that Marco Rose’s instructions for this game were to “be more direct” and Donny Malen’s response was “OKAY”. Foaming at the mouth kind of behavior. When he was not on the ball himself, he was charging into space or drawing defenders to allow others through on goal.

Substitutes

Julian Brandt

Nick: 7

He nearly scored some spectacular goals and didn't make any dumb mistakes.

Paul: 7

Zac: 6

Marin Pongracic

Nick: 7

Paul: 6

Zac: 7

Did he look good, or has Zagadou just looked that bad? In fairness, Gladbach did not throw much at him in particular.

Youssoufa Moukoko

Nick: 8

It wasn't the most spectacular goal, but you could tell how much it meant to him. Great to see him out there scoring again.

Paul: 7

Zac: 7.5

Nico Schulz

Nick: 6.5

Paul: 6

Zac: 6

Ultimate meh. What Schulz does on the field could be done in a videogame with two buttons.

Marius Wolf

Nick: 8.5

I think I now get why Rose likes Marius Wolf so much. Don't be shocked if we see him starting on Thursday.

Paul: 8

In a pretty short stint on the pitch, Wolf contributed to one goal and scored another. He’s really carved out a role as a useful squad player.

Zac: 8

I love this guy. I really, really want him to succeed in this club.

Overall

Nick: 10

Hard to complain about a match like that. Gladbach looked like a third division side for the entire second half, and BVB took full advantage. Injuries aside, this was a perfect game as far as I'm concerned—easy 10.

Paul: 9

This was the right response after the mess of a performance that saw them lose 4-2 against Rangers earlier in the week, but let's see some more of this on Thursday.

Zac: 9

I, like Paul, am forced to see this result through the Europa League lens. EuropaLens, if you prefer. Zero discredit to this absolute Marco Reus masterclass or to the huge morale boost this win will give the squad, but frankly, if this result is sandwiched between two losses to Rangers, it is going to fade out of memory very quickly. There is one way for this team to prevent that from happening.