Match Ratings: A Complete Display Against Freiburg Sees Dortmund Enter the Top Four

There’s a lot of cause for celebration after Borussia Dortmund’s big win against SC Freiburg on Saturday. We saw returning players in Marco Reus and Mahmoud Dahoud, we got a goal from Sebastien Haller, and probably most importantly, we won convincingly against one of the most consistent teams in the league. It’s of course somewhat strange to rate a game where the opponent had only ten players on this pitch for around 80% of the game, but honestly it should not take away anything away from the players, who (almost) performed well across the board.

Here are our ratings from Saturday’s victory:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Anders: 6

Well - he did let in a goal, but honestly it was very hard to anticipate due to the defensive scramble that resulted in the shot from Lucas Höler. I hope he didn’t freeze to death as a result of him just being a bystander this game.

Sean: 6

Raphaël Guerreiro

Anders: 8

Would you look at that! I mentioned in my match observations, that Raphaël Guerreiro’s game today mostly worked because Freiburg weren’t able to pressure BVB at all due to the early red card for Kiliann Sildillia. The Portuguese international managed five key passes and a passing rate just above 90%. Very impressive numbers when you take his role into account. I also hope Rapha can regain a bit of fire from this performance - he needs it.

Sean: 8

An absolute master class. Vintage Guerreiro. He notched three assists and was electric, dominating the entire left side of the pitch. Playing against ten men helped, but if he can continue to play like he did on Saturday,

Nico Schlotterbeck

Anders: 7

Didn’t look too comfortable right before the goal, and it kinda bothers me. We could not get a clean sheet, even with Freiburg being down to ten men, and in this case, it was due to some pretty suspect defending. Aside from that mistake, Schlotti was very good. He really showcased his passing abilities- especially with some gorgeous long-balls. He also scored a goal from an impossible angle, and for that I must bump up his score.

Sean: 6

I don’t think Schlotterbeck’s mistake was necessarily a big deal, at least in a vacuum. The ball carremmed off at least three players before eventually landing at the feet of Lucas Höler. The issue is that these types of small mistakes seem to be happening every game.

Niklas Süle

Anders: 7

Sean: 6

Süle was mostly fine, but his failed clearance was at least as much to blame for Freiburg’s goal as Schlotterbeck’s mistake.

Marius Wolf

Anders: 7

Sean: 6

Karim Adeyemi

Anders: 8

I could go back and watch the first 17 minutes of this game again and again. One person who probably won’t do that, is Kiliann Sildillia. Adeyemi ran circles around the young Frenchman, and you almost felt bad for him when he got sent off. The lightning fast German was much more involved today, and his goal came from a brilliant one-two with Jude Bellingham. I very much liked, that he drifted into the center a lot, often switching places with Julian Brandt, and it was clearly too much for the Freiburg defense to handle.

Sean: 8

Absolutely brilliant performance. Watching him dash down the line was amazing. If Adeyemi can start putting together performances like this, it will add so much dynamism to BVB’s attack.

Marco Reus

Anders: 6

Sean: 6

Emre Can

Anders: 7

I don’t think Can did anything wrong in particular. His role was became somewhat redundant after the red card, but you could clearly see, that he tried his best to speed up the play and participate in the attack. All in all a very disciplined display from a player who’s having nice upswing at the moment.

Sean: 6

Jude Bellingham

Anders: 6

Sean: 7

Julian Brandt

Anders: 9

This was probably Julian Brandt’s best game in a Dortmund-shirt. Upholding a passing accuracy of 92% in a forward role while delivering five key passes is honestly mental. His goal was one of the best of the season so far, and he interchanged very well with our wingers in order to draw Freiburg’s defenders forward. If Jule continues like this, we might just have our Marco Reus replacement.

Sean: 9

Easily my man of the match. Going by current form, he might be one of the top three players in the Bundesliga right now.

Sebastien Haller

Anders: 7

Sean: 8

Fuck cancer.

Substitutions

Youssoufa Moukoko

Anders: 5

Sean: 5

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens

Anders: 6

I think JBG looked very promising today. He did scuff a somewhat big chance, but he was much better in terms of letting go of the ball and finding the right pass. He started the move for Reyna’s goal and won all but one of his duels. It could have been a seven, or even an eight if he had sent his shot past Mark Flekken.

Sean: 7

JBG didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he looked ridiculously dangerous on multiple occasions. There were at least two instances where he breezed by the Freiburg defenders like they were traffic cones.

Gio Reyna

Anders: 6

Actually a really well-taken goal, but he didn’t really do anything of note other than that. I’m still very hopeful for him going forward though. Good job, Gio!

Sean: 7

Gio continues to look very dangerous coming off the bench. Hopefully as his fitness improves he can begin playing more games in their entirety.

Donyell Malen, Mahmoud Dahoud

N/A

Overall

Anders: 8

When you win against Freiburg by four goals, you have to give some credit. Everyone seemed up for the task, and Terzic and his team is to thank for that. I’m still in doubt whether Terzic is the right coach for a title-winning BVB, but I can’t deny that he’s currently on a good run. I think his tactical outlay and flexibility was especially good against Leverkusen, and it finally feels like the team has some momentum going. Now let’s not get kicked out of the Pokal!

Sean: 9

One defensive hiccup aside, BVB controlled the game from start to finish. Everything that we’ve wanted out of this squad was on full display. Adeyemi finally looked dangerous, Brandt looked like the successor to Marco Reus that we’ve always hoped for, and Sebastien Haller showed that he isn’t just ready to play, but is ready to score goals. Things are starting to come together for this BVB side, and barring any injuries, there’s still more room for this squad to grow.