Match Ratings: Borussia Dortmund Fight for All Three Points in Friday Night Win

Borussia Dortmund registered a second successive 1-0 victory in the Bundesliga on Friday night, overcoming Hoffenheim in a close but clear win to take them top of the table for just under 24 hours. The slim margin of victory doesn’t really do justice to BVB’s solid performance. They were the better team, never really seemed in any great danger of conceding, despite Hoffenheim giving a good account of themselves in the second half, and Dortmund probably should have won by a wider margin, but for some poor finishing letting them down.

The three points lifted them over Bayern Munich to go into first place for a little while, until Freiburg’s 3-2 win against Bayer Leverkusen gave them the top spot. Despite the calamitious collapse against Werder Bremen, BVB now find themselves with four wins from five games, in second place, and with one of the better defensive records in the Bundesliga this season. It’s still early doors, but there’s some signs that Edin Terzic is moving this team in the right direction. Now on to the Champions League in the week!

Here’s our ratings from Friday’s hard-fought win over Hoffenheim:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Paul: 5

Thanks to the good performances from his defense, Kobel had a relatively quiet night, only facing two shots on target. He was solid whenever called upon, but that wasn’t often.

Yash: 6.5

Anders: 6

Only had two saves which were both pretty routine. Had some decent distribution though.

Mats Hummels

Paul: 7

This was Hummels’s best performance so far this season. He’s looked a little off the pace (both figuratively and literally) up to now, but he put in a really good showing on Friday night. If he keeps this up he can genuinely compete with Süle for the starting spot alongside Schlotterbeck.

Yash: 7.5

Anders: 7

Nico Schlotterbeck

Paul: 8

Schlotterbeck is one of the best center backs in the world, and this has probably been the case for a while now, but (much like Virgil van Dijk when he moved to Liverpool) the move to Borussia Dortmund will help shine a light on that fact.

I think he was BVB’s best player against Hoffenheim, much as he has been all season long.

Yash: 7

Very good (barring that lapse in concentration), but outshone by Hummels.

Anders: 8

My personal MotM. I don’t remember seeing Schlottigott set a foot wrong for the entire game. An absolute consistency beast who is arguably the best defender in the league based on the first five games.

Marius Wolf

Paul: 7

Wolf put in a solid if unspectacular performance playing in a slightly unfamiliar position. His stat sheet from Friday’s game really pops, but I think that flatters his performance slightly. But still, I appreciate his good work filling in for Guerreiro.

Yash: 8

An absolute machine. Playing out of position, on his weaker left side, he still created the most chances, completed the most dribbles, and won the most tackles. A complete performance, and a definite MotM candidate.

Anders: 7

Thomas Meunier

Paul: 5

Yash: 6

Anders: 6

A quiet but decent shift from Meunier. The consistency he has shown lately is probably the reason why some Catalan club wants him.

Salih Özcan

Paul: 7

Yash: 7.5

Really giving Mo a run for his money at the moment.

Anders: 7

Do yourself a favor and do the “Busquets test” on Özcan. Look only at him for 10 minutes straight, and you’ll realize how much he makes our whole game tick.

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 7

Yash: 7

A typical Jude performance. Collected an undeserved yellow for dissent.

Anders 7.5

Marco Reus

Paul: 7

Yash: 7.5

Opened the scoring in a BVB shirt for the 54th time, equaling Manni Burgsmüller’s record. While he was rather quiet offensively, his work rate and ability to progress the ball were both on full display on Friday night.

Anders: 7

Julian Brandt

Paul: 8

Yash: 8

Engineered a lovely assist and contributed both offensively and defensively. His intelligent off-the-ball movement is integral to the fluid attacking style Terzic is attempting to cultivate at the club and he clearly combines well with Reus, Meunier and Wolf. A must-start.

Anders: 7

Now listen up. Brandt was good, but I don’t give pity points. He still squandered some decent counter attacking opportunities, and he got dispossessed more than any other player on the pitch. His opening 40 minutes were phenomenal though, and I hope he can continue to build on that.

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens

Paul: 5

Yash: 4.5

Missed a sitter, dribbled too much, and looked lost when he didn’t have the ball. The quality is clearly there, but he’s definitely not ready to start for BVB at the moment.

Anders: 5

Get well soon, buddy.

Anthony Modeste

Paul: 6

Yash: 7

Modeste has adapted quickly. He was industrious and combative as usual, but he also got involved in the build-up to good effect.

Anders: 6

Substitutions

Thorgan Hazard

Paul: 6

Yash: 6

Anders: 6

Niklas Süle

N/A

Gio Reyna

N/A

Youssoufa Moukoko

N/A

Overall

Paul: 7

An all-round solid performance that leaves you with little room for complaints. BVB definitely could have been a little more clinical in front of goal, and it would have been nice to have the game wrapped up early, instead of having to fight right to the end, but the offense was a lot more fluid than at any other time so far this season, and the defense was solid as a rock. This was a step in the right direction.

Yash: 8

A good performance all round. We definitely should have scored more (and maybe should have had a penalty), but it’s good to see Terzic’s charges gelling well in attack and Özcan stepping into the Dahoud role without any trouble. It is particularly heartening that our 11 goals this season have come from 10 different players. Our dependence on Haaland last season was a little concerning, and the fact that we have so many goalscorers this season makes us that much more unpredictable. We just need to be more efficient in front of goal.

Anders: 8

As I wrote in my post-match reaction; this is the first game this year, where no one in the team played particularly bad. This victory was a product of the team’s high discipline, and I hope this is a sign of Terzic finally starting to make some kind of mark. Now we just need to score more goals.