Match Ratings: Dortmund Continue Their Winning Run Against Hoffenheim

Editor’s Note: Apologies for the delay getting the ratings out, sometimes life gets in the way. You just get an extra healthy dose of content for a Thursday, instead. Enjoy!

With Bayern Munich and Union Berlin facing off on Sunday, Dortmund needed three points to leap over one of their title rivals. In previous years, these conditions often served as bogey games and the club would go on to lose against a relegation candidate. This year, however, saw Dortmund grind out a gritty 1-0 win over a Hoffenheim side that played much better than their form suggests. Now, Dortmund are tied with Bayern in first place and look to hosting RB Leipzig on Friday.

But first, here are our player ratings for BVB’s 1-0 win against Hoffenheim:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Patrick: 9

Kobel is quickly getting a reputation as one of Dortmund’s best signings in the past couple of years. Made a fantastic save to deny a Hoffenheim player from 3 feet out. This game really felt like a competition between goalkeepers.

Yash: 9

Raphael Guerreiro

Patrick: 6

Quiet game from Rapha. That isn’t a bad thing.

Yash: 7.5

Great going forward, and could have had a couple if not for the inspired Baumann. Only Reus made more key passes than his five.

Nico Schlotterbeck

Patrick: 8

Did a great job in defense and continues to be fantastic off of set pieces. Was unlucky to be called for a foul which disallowed Marius Wolf’s wonder strike in the second half.

Yash: 7

Niklas Sule

Patrick: 7

Clean, professional, and disciplined performance from Sule. It’s what you want from your veteran center back.

Yash: 7

Marius Wolf

Patrick: 7

Did a great job marshalling Angelino and should’ve had a goal. Unfortunately, it was chalked off due to an earlier foul by Schlotterbeck. Still, his goal-of-the-season contender will live on in this FTW ratings.

Yash: 8

Ran hard, tackled hard, shot hard. Lovely.

Jude Bellingham

Patrick: 6

Poor Jude, he’s so good that I can’t help but expect more out of him every time he plays. His ‘average’ game, which this one was, is still better than most players in their prime. Could’ve had a goal had the post been 3 inches to the left.

Yash: 6

Unlucky not to score, perhaps. Picked up a completely unnecessary yellow.

Emre Can

Patrick: 7

Emre Can has become a pillar of stability in recent weeks. His role in breaking up plays and even slotting in as a center back at times has become vital to Dortmund’s great run of form. He was really good against Hoffenheim and still hasn’t made a glaring error in recent weeks.

Yash: 7

Emre seems to have found real consistency this second half of the season! I didn't detect a single moment of head-loss, and he didn't get carded either.

Marco Reus

Patrick: 7

Dortmund’s captain got the assist and was very involved in build-up play throughout the game; six chances created, one assist, 35 passes, and 54 touches across 88 minutes. Hopefully, he gets some rest in before Leipzig.

Yash: 8

Aging like a fine wine. Even at 33, our Kapitän controls the flow of the attack with his intelligent movement and passing.

Julian Brandt

Patrick: 8

Got the goal and was Dortmund’s most involved players. Not sure how much luck was involved in the goal but I’m glad to see him get rewarded for his form in recent weeks. Also did a fantastic job off of dead balls.

Yash: 8

We're getting to a point where I no longer need to plug Brandt for the Man of the Match nominations. This might be because everyone's tired of hearing it, but I like to think it's because he's very, very good at football.

Sebastian Haller

Patrick: 6

One of his better games in recent weeks. Did a fantastic job to force a save out of Baumann in the 31st minute despite being surrounded by three Hoffenheim players. He then almost scored off the subsequent corner. Still, he should probably have scored one of those chances and I would like to see him be more threatening on goal.

Yash: 6

Jamie Bynoe Gittens

Patrick: 7

I like Jamie a lot. Like, a lot a lot. He continues to threaten when he gets the ball and just needs to clean up his final ball. At 18 years old, he has a lot of time to do that. He was a handful for Hoffenheim’s defenders but couldn't quite find a teammate when he made space.

Yash: 6

Energetic but ineffectual. He looked promising but lacked any sort of end product. A much-improved performance from last week, overall, though.

Substitutes

Donyell Malen

Patrick: 5

Had 16 total touches in his appearance, was disposed in five of them, offsides once, and didn’t do much else of note. I like Malen when he’s running in behind but with Hoffenheim were good in not giving him the space to do that.

Yash: 5

Salih Ozcan

Patrick: 5

Ozcan made me nervous when he came on. Dortmund were under siege and he lost five of the six duels he was in. Was disposed of three times. Wasn’t exactly the veteran presence I wanted in that moment.

Yash: 5

He was brought in to be an extra body in the midfield, and that's pretty much all he was.

Mats Hummels

NA

Overall

Patrick: 7

Good performances from a lot of the team and Hoffenheim played much better than anticipated. Should’ve been 2-0 had it not been for an interesting call from the referee. Still, I’d like to see us run away with these games but I won’t complain about three points!

Yash: 7

We looked the better team for the vast majority of the 90, and could have scored four on another day. The combination of Reus and Brandt, together with the overlapping Guerreiro, made our attack incredibly difficult to resist, and Big Seb adds an aerial presence up front that we lacked with Mouki. Looks like Wolf will have to settle for the not-goal of the season award, unfortunately.