Match Ratings: Borussia Dortmund Collapse in Munich Once Again

Another year, another atrocious Borussia Dortmund collapse in Munich. What more can be said about yet another self-inflicted loss at the Allianz Arena, in a game that could have a huge impact on the Bundesliga title race between BVB and Bayern Munich?

I’m sure everyone is equally as frustrated about the four goal collapse that BVB inflicted on themselves, but the good news is that they are only two points behind Bayern at the top of the table, and as important as this game was, it doesn’t have to be the title decider. Hopefully Dortmund respond straight away and get back to winning ways against RB Leipzig in the cup on Wednesday, and hopefully they are ready to keep up the chase for the Meisterschale for the last eight games of the season.

Here’s our ratings from Borussia Dortmund’s 4-2 loss to FC Bayern:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Paul: 1

What an abysmal performance. Kobel’s error early in the game set the tone, and you could visibly see it completely deflate the whole team. Kobel definitely doesn’t take the full blame for what happened on Saturday, but he takes a pretty big chunk of it, at the very least.

Yash: 2

Joey: 2

Greg has won a number of games for Dortmund this season so I’ll forgive this early blunder. Kobel had a similar mishap against Union Berlin last October. Three days later, he bounced back with seven saves in Dortmund’s 2-0 Pokal win over Hannover. Let’s hope Greg is ready for Wednesday!

Julian Ryerson

Paul: 2

Yash: 2

Joey: 3

Nico Schlotterbeck

Paul: 3

Was Schlotterbeck struggling with the hip injury he picked up on International duty? I don’t know. He wasn’t very good though.

Yash: 3

Joey: 3

Niklas Süle

Paul: 3

Yash: 3

Joey: 4

Big Fridge can kick an accurate long-ball pass, but his defending was poor overall.

Marius Wolf

Paul: 4

I think Wolf tends to get let off a lot by fans because he is pretty good going forward and he plays with plenty of energy and PASHUN. Some of that was on show when BVB were really struggling on Saturday. He certainly started brightly, and it wasn’t his fault that he was forced to sit deeper after Bayern’s goal, but he was bypassed far too easily for Bayern’s fourth goal.

Yash: 5

Full commitment all of the time. That’s all I expect and Marius continues to deliver that. Looked good going forward, causing the ineffectual Davies all sorts of problems, and put a real shift in defensively (though he probably could have done better on Bayern’s fourth). Unlucky not to get an assist; his cross was inch-perfect, but Seb didn’t manage to get any sort of solid contact.

Joey: 5

Photo by Fantasista/Getty Images

Emre Can

Paul: 5

Yash: 4

Made an effort and scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot, but he did completely lose Muller for the third Bayern goal.

Joey: 5

While most Dortmund players appeared dejected, Emre Can just looked angry. He stepped up to take the PK and maintained his perfect record from the spot this season.

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 4

Yash: 3

This was the most difficult rating for me to assign; Jude put in real effort and he did win a penalty, but his abysmal defensive positioning left our midfield open time and time again. I think he’s a little overworked at the moment; international break wasn’t much of a break for him, and it showed.

Joey: 4

Rapha Guerreiro

Paul: 4

Yash: 5

He did get an assist and was generally not awful going forward. Tracked back too (unusually enough) making the most ball recoveries of any Dortmund player, but he was outnumbered in the centre of the park. Still, looked like one of the most likely players to make anything happen as he made the joint-most key passes of any BVB player (joint with Wolf on 3).

Joey: 4

Julian Brandt

Paul: 3

I don’t think Brandt was ready to return to the starting lineup. He certainly didn’t look it. He was also caught way too flat-footed on Mueller’s first goal. Hopefully he returns to his previous form immediately!

Yash: 3

Joey: 3

Marco Reus

Paul: 2

Reus completely disappeared. You need a lot more from your captain in those moments.

Yash: 4

One of the few players actually making positive runs off the ball and attempting to make things happen. Suffered from a lack of support and faded towards the end of his appearance.

Joey: 3

Sébastien Haller

Paul: 3

Yash: 2

Joey: 3

Dayot Upamecano and Matthijs de Ligt marked Haller from the first minute. The Ivorian didn't bring anything creative to the field in this match.

Substitutes

Mats Hummels

Paul: 5

Think Hummels shored things up a bit at the back when he came on. He was still getting cooked on occasion. Perhaps I’m being overly generous because the defense was so poor before he came on.

Yash: 5

Hummels’ experience and calm was definitely a big reason for us only conceding once after half. In big games like this, his mentality is clearly a level above that of the more inexperienced Schlotti.

Joey: 5

Donyell Malen

Paul: 7

The only player that came away from this game with any real positives.

Yash: 6

Joey: 6

Salih Özcan

Paul: 5

Yash: 5

Joey: 5

Youssoufa Moukoko

N/A

Mahmoud Dahoud

N/A

Overall

Paul: 2

Garbage. They’ve got to do better than this whenever they head to Munich. Collapsing because of one mistake is not good enough.

Yash: 3

After a bright start, the team’s heads really seemed to drop post the first goal, and the game became something of a formality after the second. A couple of promising performances aside, the team looked lacklustre and devoid of self-belief. Surprising? Not particularly. Disappointing? Yes. Terzic’s gambles on player fitness didn’t pay off at all. Tactically, I don’t think there was much wrong with the shape, but individual players’ errors let us down a little.

It is important to put this result in perspective, however; this is only our first league loss in 11 games in 2023, against possibly the best team in the league, in a stadium we haven’t won in in almost a decade. Moreover, we’re only two points behind them, with 24 to play for and Bayern are still in the Champions League. While the loss (and the way in which we lost) definitely stings, the title is far from decided. Time to rebound and beat Energy Drink Can FC!

Joey: 3

I'm not so much disappointed that we lost this match as much as I am with the squad’s body language. The first goal after Kobel’s mistake took all of the wind out of Dortmund’s sails and they comprehensively fell apart.

I do not believe that this match was a title-decider. It would have been really nice to be four points clear, but BVB are just two points behind and don't have Champions League to worry about. Thomas Tuchel won’t immediately fix Bayern’s problems (if you can even call them problems) and Bayern have become a trap team for Dortmund; just look at the head-to-head of the last decade. I do find it very likely that Bayern will slip up unexpectedly to a team like Schalke or Hertha who will likely still have everything to play for.

What’s important now is how Dortmund bounce back from this loss, especially this week with the Pokal clash away in Leipzig followed by a league match against third-placed Union Berlin.