fear the wall 
28-02-2024 20:01
28-02-2024 20:01
Match Ratings: Individual Errors Prove Costly as BVB Lose 3-2 to Hoffenheim
Heading into Sunday’s home game against Hoffenheim, Borussia Dortmund were unbeaten in all competitions in the Rückrunde. However, despite their unbeaten run, a poor performance against Wolfsburg followed by a lackluster effort against PSV was cause for concern. Sunday did nothing to improve the mood, as that unbeaten run was snapped in a 3-2 loss against Hoffenheim.
BVB got off to a terrible start, conceding a stupid goal to Ihlas Bebou in just the second minute of the game, following a poor pass from Emre Can that Nico Schlotterbeck was too slow to react to. The response was positive, as goals from Donyell Malen and Nico Schlotterbeck gave Dortmund a lead heading into halftime. However, two quick goals from Maximilian Beier just after the hour gave Hoffenheim the advantage, and BVB never looked like turning it around a second time.
The performance wasn’t as bad as the result suggests, but this was not an unlucky defeat. BVB controlled the game until they didn’t. Those moments occurred because of poor defending and numerous individual errors, but even when they had control, they struggled to create many dangerous chances.
Despite the unconvincing run in recent weeks, BVB are still in fourth, but Edin Terzic is running out of time to fix this mess. Here are our player ratings from Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Hoffenheim.
Starting XI
Alexander Meyer
Paul: 5
Yash: 5
Sean: 5
He did give up three goals, but one was an absolute snipe, one was a deflection he had no chance on, and the other was a close-range tap-in.
Ian Maatsen
Paul: 5
Yash: 4
Sean: 5
For the second match in a row, Maatsen struggled.
Nico Schlotterbeck
Paul: 4
I don’t think either center-back covered themselves in glory against Hoffenheim, but at least Nico Schlotterbeck grabbed a goal.
Yash: 2.5
Depressingly bad from Schlotti, who looked completely lost out there. His goal (and a lovely goal it was too) meant nothing in the end.
Sean: 4
Emre Can
Paul: 2
Schlotterbeck has his goal to soften the blow and protect his rating, but there was nothing in Emre Can’s performance to protect him. He played a big part in all three Hoffenheim goals. Can has now clocked three consecutive below-par games. Not good enough.
Yash: 1.5
Before the game, I wrote the following in the FTW Slack:
Can and Schlotti in central defence I don’t think my heart can take this hahaha
I did not expect to be proved right inside the first three minutes of the game. In a display of ludicrous defensive incompetence, matched only by that of his central partner, Can proceeded to make up for his shaky start by making error after error. Abject.
Sean: 3
Can is a serviceable center-back in a back three, but a pairing with Can and Schlotterbeck was only going to end one way: disastrously.
Julian Ryerson
Paul: 5
Yash: 5.5
Sean: 4
Marcel Sabitzer
Paul: 5
Yash: 6
Sabi has quietly been our best player this Rückrunde (though Malen and Maatsen deserve shouts). Yet another industrious, disciplined display, but he was let down by the players behind him.
Sean: 5
Julian Brandt
Paul: 6
I thought Brandt struggled a little in the pivot, but at the same time I think it was asking an awful lot of him!
Yash: 6.5
I was worried about Brandt in the deeper role; I thought it would really stretch him, especially after his illness, but he was pretty good on Sunday! Heavily involved throughout, recording the third-most touches, joint-most key passes, and third-highest xA. Plus, a 92% pass success rate. Decent.
Sean: 5
Marco Reus
Paul: 7
Reus was one of the two positives in this game. All the good moments in the game ran through Reus. It’s a shame we still have to rely on him so much at this stage in his career.
Yash: 7
Sean: 7
Reus assisted both goals and was constantly the most threatening midfielder.
Jadon Sancho
Paul: 5
Sancho contributed seven shot-creating actions and some solid ball progression. This has been the case more often than not when he’s on the pitch, which raises his floor pretty effectively, but he’s still struggling to really make things click. From the seven shot-creating actions, he didn’t create many clear-cut chances. Hopefully it will come together soon.
Yash: 4
Sean: 5
Donyell Malen
Paul: 7
Malen was solid again on Sunday, but this game really highlighted the issue BVB have in offense. Malen put up 4 shots for 0.6 xG, which made up 30% of Dortmund’s total xG, and another 25% was provided by a Schlotterbeck header. We are asking Malen to be a superstar and carry this offense when he is just good (but patchy).
Yash: 6
Sean: 7
Along with Reus, Malen carried BVB’s attack. This club’s scoring depth is at its lowest point in years and Malen is doing everything it can to pull his weight, so of course the board wants to sell him!
Niclas Füllkrug
Paul: 4
Yash: 4
Industrious, but left no impression whatsoever. Unfortunate to be subbed off directly before Adeyemi’s introduction; he would definitely have been in the mix for those crosses.
Sean: 5
Fulle had one excellent chance in the 75th minute that he unfortunately blasted about thirty yards wide. Other than that, he was pretty quiet.
Substitutes
Youssoufa Moukoko
Paul: 5
Yash: 4
Karim Adeyemi
Paul: 6
I thought Adeyemi was pretty bright off the bench. Dortmund could really do with him finding his form in what is left of the season.
Yash: 5.5
Bright and lively, but couldn’t quite find the cross. Might’ve benefited from Fülle being left on.
Sean: 6
If there’s one positive to take from this match, it’s that Adeyemi looked dangerous coming off the bench. He held the ball with confidence and put a few dangerous crosses into the box.
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
N/A
Mats Hummels
N/A
Julien Duranville
N/A
Overall
Paul: 4
I try not to overreact to bad results when the numbers suggest that the performance was better than the result suggests. However, I at least need to be able to defend that idea against my own sense of the game I watched, and in this case I can’t do that. BVB were the better team, on balance, but it wasn’t moments of great individual skill from a Hoffenheim player, or terrible luck, that led to the loss. It was individual errors, missed assignments, and low-effort in defense that gifted Hoffenheim three goals.
It was unforgivable moments that caused BVB’s loss, and the kind of moments that just can’t continue to happen. Maybe it was a really bad day for multiple players? But if we see more of this, I think something has to change immediately.
Yash: 4
The saddest part of Sunday’s loss was that we weren’t bad. Individual errors and underperforming key players cost us against a decidedly uninspired Hoffenheim. Much like the Heidenheim game, we saw here the lack of depth in our squad, as there really wasn’t much for Terzic to turn to as a surefire source of inspiration and impetus.
The more the season wears on, the more the gaps in our squad become apparent. We can dominate games (like we did on Sunday) all we want, but in the wider context of the league season, it will count for nought. Oh, well.
Sean: 4
Overall, BVB led by a wide margin on the xG, so it wasn’t an abject performance across the board, but once again the club fell victim to mistakes that no professional football club with title ambitions has any business making. The defending on BVB’s third goal in particular was disastrous; not a single player was in the right position. Such mistakes are unacceptable and indicative of a squad that frankly has no idea what it’s supposed to be doing.
Your Thoughts?
What did you make of BVB’s performance against Hoffenheim?
BVB got off to a terrible start, conceding a stupid goal to Ihlas Bebou in just the second minute of the game, following a poor pass from Emre Can that Nico Schlotterbeck was too slow to react to. The response was positive, as goals from Donyell Malen and Nico Schlotterbeck gave Dortmund a lead heading into halftime. However, two quick goals from Maximilian Beier just after the hour gave Hoffenheim the advantage, and BVB never looked like turning it around a second time.
The performance wasn’t as bad as the result suggests, but this was not an unlucky defeat. BVB controlled the game until they didn’t. Those moments occurred because of poor defending and numerous individual errors, but even when they had control, they struggled to create many dangerous chances.
Despite the unconvincing run in recent weeks, BVB are still in fourth, but Edin Terzic is running out of time to fix this mess. Here are our player ratings from Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Hoffenheim.
Starting XI
Alexander Meyer
Paul: 5
Yash: 5
Sean: 5
He did give up three goals, but one was an absolute snipe, one was a deflection he had no chance on, and the other was a close-range tap-in.
Ian Maatsen
Paul: 5
Yash: 4
Sean: 5
For the second match in a row, Maatsen struggled.
Nico Schlotterbeck
Paul: 4
I don’t think either center-back covered themselves in glory against Hoffenheim, but at least Nico Schlotterbeck grabbed a goal.
Yash: 2.5
Depressingly bad from Schlotti, who looked completely lost out there. His goal (and a lovely goal it was too) meant nothing in the end.
Sean: 4
Emre Can
Paul: 2
Schlotterbeck has his goal to soften the blow and protect his rating, but there was nothing in Emre Can’s performance to protect him. He played a big part in all three Hoffenheim goals. Can has now clocked three consecutive below-par games. Not good enough.
Yash: 1.5
Before the game, I wrote the following in the FTW Slack:
Can and Schlotti in central defence I don’t think my heart can take this hahaha
I did not expect to be proved right inside the first three minutes of the game. In a display of ludicrous defensive incompetence, matched only by that of his central partner, Can proceeded to make up for his shaky start by making error after error. Abject.
Sean: 3
Can is a serviceable center-back in a back three, but a pairing with Can and Schlotterbeck was only going to end one way: disastrously.
Julian Ryerson
Paul: 5
Yash: 5.5
Sean: 4
Marcel Sabitzer
Paul: 5
Yash: 6
Sabi has quietly been our best player this Rückrunde (though Malen and Maatsen deserve shouts). Yet another industrious, disciplined display, but he was let down by the players behind him.
Sean: 5
Julian Brandt
Paul: 6
I thought Brandt struggled a little in the pivot, but at the same time I think it was asking an awful lot of him!
Yash: 6.5
I was worried about Brandt in the deeper role; I thought it would really stretch him, especially after his illness, but he was pretty good on Sunday! Heavily involved throughout, recording the third-most touches, joint-most key passes, and third-highest xA. Plus, a 92% pass success rate. Decent.
Sean: 5
Marco Reus
Paul: 7
Reus was one of the two positives in this game. All the good moments in the game ran through Reus. It’s a shame we still have to rely on him so much at this stage in his career.
Yash: 7
Sean: 7
Reus assisted both goals and was constantly the most threatening midfielder.
Jadon Sancho
Paul: 5
Sancho contributed seven shot-creating actions and some solid ball progression. This has been the case more often than not when he’s on the pitch, which raises his floor pretty effectively, but he’s still struggling to really make things click. From the seven shot-creating actions, he didn’t create many clear-cut chances. Hopefully it will come together soon.
Yash: 4
Sean: 5
Donyell Malen
Paul: 7
Malen was solid again on Sunday, but this game really highlighted the issue BVB have in offense. Malen put up 4 shots for 0.6 xG, which made up 30% of Dortmund’s total xG, and another 25% was provided by a Schlotterbeck header. We are asking Malen to be a superstar and carry this offense when he is just good (but patchy).
Yash: 6
Sean: 7
Along with Reus, Malen carried BVB’s attack. This club’s scoring depth is at its lowest point in years and Malen is doing everything it can to pull his weight, so of course the board wants to sell him!
Niclas Füllkrug
Paul: 4
Yash: 4
Industrious, but left no impression whatsoever. Unfortunate to be subbed off directly before Adeyemi’s introduction; he would definitely have been in the mix for those crosses.
Sean: 5
Fulle had one excellent chance in the 75th minute that he unfortunately blasted about thirty yards wide. Other than that, he was pretty quiet.
Substitutes
Youssoufa Moukoko
Paul: 5
Yash: 4
Karim Adeyemi
Paul: 6
I thought Adeyemi was pretty bright off the bench. Dortmund could really do with him finding his form in what is left of the season.
Yash: 5.5
Bright and lively, but couldn’t quite find the cross. Might’ve benefited from Fülle being left on.
Sean: 6
If there’s one positive to take from this match, it’s that Adeyemi looked dangerous coming off the bench. He held the ball with confidence and put a few dangerous crosses into the box.
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
N/A
Mats Hummels
N/A
Julien Duranville
N/A
Overall
Paul: 4
I try not to overreact to bad results when the numbers suggest that the performance was better than the result suggests. However, I at least need to be able to defend that idea against my own sense of the game I watched, and in this case I can’t do that. BVB were the better team, on balance, but it wasn’t moments of great individual skill from a Hoffenheim player, or terrible luck, that led to the loss. It was individual errors, missed assignments, and low-effort in defense that gifted Hoffenheim three goals.
It was unforgivable moments that caused BVB’s loss, and the kind of moments that just can’t continue to happen. Maybe it was a really bad day for multiple players? But if we see more of this, I think something has to change immediately.
Yash: 4
The saddest part of Sunday’s loss was that we weren’t bad. Individual errors and underperforming key players cost us against a decidedly uninspired Hoffenheim. Much like the Heidenheim game, we saw here the lack of depth in our squad, as there really wasn’t much for Terzic to turn to as a surefire source of inspiration and impetus.
The more the season wears on, the more the gaps in our squad become apparent. We can dominate games (like we did on Sunday) all we want, but in the wider context of the league season, it will count for nought. Oh, well.
Sean: 4
Overall, BVB led by a wide margin on the xG, so it wasn’t an abject performance across the board, but once again the club fell victim to mistakes that no professional football club with title ambitions has any business making. The defending on BVB’s third goal in particular was disastrous; not a single player was in the right position. Such mistakes are unacceptable and indicative of a squad that frankly has no idea what it’s supposed to be doing.
Your Thoughts?
What did you make of BVB’s performance against Hoffenheim?