Borussia Dortmund vs Benfica: Match Ratings

Borussia Dortmund suffered a frustrating loss Tuesday, but how did the individual players perform?

Once again our favorite club Borussia Dortmund dropped a difficult match on the road.  The theme is becoming a consistent feature in my writing it seems and each match it is as if a new player can shoulder the blame.  Let’s meet the zero of the week, shall we?

GK: Roman Burki: 6

For the majority of the match, anyone could have played in the net.  Benfica could only muster one shot on target and it went in.  One sequence that I remember, Burki and Piszczek played a series of passes to each other with Piszczek coming under more and more pressure.  It was in the early portion of the second half and while it probably ultimately didn’t lead to the Benfica goal, the eventual turnover was an interesting microcosm of an inability to handle pressure that led to Benfica building up momentum toward the goal.

LCB: Marc Bartra: 6.5

I often hear Bartra on the receiving end of abuse about his poor play, but after the winter break, his partnership with Sokratis has been top notch.  Sure Bartra may be a poor man Mats Hummels, but I still enjoy him carrying the ball forward in the BVB three man backline, creating pressure on the winger about covering Bartra and leaving Marcel Schmelzer on his own or not.

CB: Sokratis: 6

This recent stretch of the Piszczek, Sokratis, and Bartra three-man defensive line is the most comfortable I’ve seen Sokratis play this season.  During the first half, Sokratis was asked to play the cutting through ball that it is safe to say is not a strength.  Now that is Bartra and Piszczek’s role, leaving Sokratis to play short passes and be the grizzly bear that he is winning both aerial duels and muscling center forwards off the ball.  In this match, Sokratis didn’t have much defending to do so his impact was limited, leading me to giving him a six.

RCB: Lukasz Piszczek: 6.5

One of the better games by Piszczek in my opinion, he created problems for the Benfica defense and was good enough defensively.

LWB: Marcel Schmelzer: 6

Schmelzer is the other component of the Bartra tactical quandary for opponents and I am a huge fan boy of watching it unfold.  Usually, the combination causes more problems and leads to tons of balls pumped into the box or easy passing lanes for Bartra.  There was some of that against Benfica but the crosses didn’t amount to anything as they all seemed to be the floated variety to a back post-Erik Durm, who didn’t handle them well at all.  Without an Adrian Ramos to win the crosses, Schmelzer’s job became difficult, perhaps if Andre Schurrle was played out on the right wing there would be a better target.  As it stands, Schmelzer didn’t have a target and therefore wasn’t very effective.

RWB: Erik Durm: 5

Durm was once again just fine.  He contributed nothing, but also didn’t stand out for being terrible.

DM: Julian Weigl: 7.5

Weigl controlled the flow for the entire match.  He was rarely dispossessed and was a primary reason why Borussia Dortmund was able to do pretty much whatever they wanted.

CM: Raphael Guerreiro: 7

For some reason, Guerreiro was subbed off after putting on a very good display.  He was frequently the culprit for any dangerous move by BVB and made several standout defensive plays to cut off the Benfica attack.

CM: Ousmane Dembele: 6.5

Dembele needs to play out wide in my opinion where he has more space to pass and dribble.  Played primarily through the middle Tuesday, Dembele created several chances for others and probably should have scored himself.  His rating would have been higher if his passing wasn’t so wasteful, but that is why his options should be limited by playing on the wing.

FW: Marco Reus: 6.5

His play was much improved from recent struggles, but Reus still didn’t put a stamp on the match like the old days.  Reus could have had a much higher score if Aubameyang could finish, but his work pressing was fun to watch.

FW: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: 3

A three was given for each of the misses.  It goes without saying that Aubameyang had a tough match.  Nothing went right for him and with only 13 touches all match he didn’t have an impact in any area beside the final product, which was horrible.

Subs:

Andre Schurrle

Gonzalo Castro

Christian Pulisic

All subs receive an incomplete except for Schurrle who gets a 5.  There wasn’t a single moment from the subs, outside of a Pulisic shot that was saved that stands out.  Tuchel didn’t have his best match in terms of subs for Borussia Dortmund, overall that is a different story though.