Borussia Dortmund: Player ratings from dismal draw against APOEL

Borussia Dortmund played one of their worst games of the season as they were held by minnows APOEL. The result seriously dented their hopes of making it to the last-16 in the UEFA Champions League. Here are the player ratings for Peter Bosz’s side for the game.

Roman Bürki (2/10)

It was a dreadful performance from Bürki. He had a terrible pass picked off by Lorenzo Ebecilio at the corner of his own box in the 62nd minute. Ebecilio cut back on a couple of Dortmund defenders and ripped a shot. Having already handed Apoel the chance, Bürki then flubbed the save and put the ball right in the path of Mickaël Poté. Poté had no trouble putting it away.

To make his night even worse, Bürki had another woeful pass picked off by an Apoel attacker a few minutes later, but luckily that one came to nothing.

Marcel Schmelzer (4/10)

There was nothing special about Schmelzer’s return to the Dortmund team. His highlight of the night was probably a free kick that was saved easily by the Apoel keeper. He mostly flew under the radar, and couldn’t link up with the midfield creatively.

Ömer Toprak (5/10)

Toprak had an unremarkable performance. He was solid defensively, but had to be subbed off early with a hamstring injury. His early exit certainly seemed more precautionary than anything, but he’s been Dortmund’s best defender thus far this season. It would be a huge blow to BVB if he had to miss time.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos (7/10)

Sokratis was easily Dortmund’s best player. He was solid defensively in the second half and won a header in the box to score BVB’s lone goal and salvage the game for Dortmund. He still made a few stupid challenges, but it was a much better game than we saw from him against Leipzig.

Marc Bartra (3/10)

Bartra put on a horrendous display against Apoel. He started out of position at right-back, but he played as if he thought he was taking over at striker. He consistently made runs with the ball into the box as if he could dribble past the entire defense, and lost the ball more often than not. Even after he transitioned to center-back in the 60th minute, his play didn’t improve.

It was actually Bartra who lost the ball far up the pitch just before Apoel’s first goal. A poor touch allowed Apoel to counter with a long ball forward. Bartra (who was closer to Apoel’s box than his own) was completely out of position. There’s no question that the goal was solely Bürki’s fault, but Bartra was nowhere to be found when his keeper needed help.

Julian Weigl (4/10)

Weigl hasn’t looked like himself this season. His passing is erratic, and he’s inconsistent on the ball. Maybe he’s still shaking the rust off after an injury kept him out over the summer, but he better figure find his form quickly. His team needs him.

Mario Götze (4/10)

One could be forgiven for thinking Götze didn’t play in this match. He made absolutely no impact on the game except for a ball into a crowded area that Sokratis manage to turn into a goal. Götze will come away with the assist, but it wasn’t all that inventive of a pass. Other than that, he contributed nothing to the attack, and certainly didn’t provide any creativity in midfield. Götze has looked good since coming back from a metabolic disorder, but this was his worst game to date.

Shinji Kagawa (6/10)

Kagawa was one of the better attackers on the pitch, but even he was nowhere to be found for most of the game. He was energetic and incisive in the opening 25 minutes, but disappeared for the rest of the game. He did have one special play in the second half, ripping a shot from the edge of the box that forced a save out of the Apoel keeper and went of the crossbar. Despite flashes of threatening play, however, Kagawa and the Dortmund midfield lacked consistent creativity.

Andriy Yarmolenko (3/10)

It was unquestionably Yarmolenko’s worst performance for BVB. He couldn’t get anything going. Everything he tried — every pass, every sneaky dribble, every shot from distance — came to nothing. It’s no surprise that he had the worst pass percentage (excluding Aubameyang) of any Dortmund player, per WhoScored.com. It was just one of those days for Yarmolenko, who couldn’t get the ball to Aubameyang and wasn’t on the same page as his midfield.

Christian Pulisic (5/10)

Most of what Pulisic tried didn’t come off either, and he disappeared for large portions of the match. Wayward passes plagued the whole team all night, and Pulisic was no different. Unlike his teammates, however, Pulisic added an energy to the attack that was sorely needed. His beautiful run with the ball down the sideline in the dying minutes of the game led to one of Dortmund’s few real scoring chances. He whipped in a beautiful cross towards Aubameyang, who probably should’ve headed it home to win the game, but forced a save from the keeper instead. Pulisic will rebound from this performance, but needs to be dangerous for the full 90 minutes.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (4/10)

Auba didn’t get a lot of service from the players around him, but it’s tough not to see him on the scoresheet against Apoel. He had a couple of chances go begging (like the header from Pulisic), but he also struggled with misplaced passes and crosses. Auba’s form has been up and down over the past few games, and the match against Apoel was an opportunity to settle down and find some consistency. Unfortunately, that’ll have to wait until the weekend.

Substitutes

Jeremy Toljan (4/10)

It’s been a rough few days for Jeremy Toljan. He got embarrassed again against Apoel after RB Leipzig made mincemeat of him over the weekend. Toljan’s one-on-one defense has been quite poor so far, especially playing in his natural position at right-back. He didn’t play for too long, coming on for Toprak in the 60th minute, but didn’t impress for the half hour he was on the pitch.

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