Borussia Dortmund 6-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach: Takeaways from big win

Injury woes continue to hamper Dortmund as Gio Reyna and Dan-Axel Zagadou are forced to come off

Injuries have continued to rack up for Borussia Dortmund since the start of the Rückrunde. There was a brief interval of time when players were slowly beginning to trickle back into training for Die Schwarzgelben, and there was much anticipation surrounding the return of Gio Reyna in particular, who had been out for an extended period of time due to a muscular injury that had excluded him from the first half of Dortmund’s season. Reyna’s return, as Marco Rose put it in the post match press conference, was much anticipated. Reyna had been performing well in training, and having him sidelined again is yet another blow for Dortmund going forward:

"“Gio was exhausted, and he was coming back from long-term injury. He was out for such a long time and I was delighted that he was back because he gives us so much. Keeping Gio fit would have been important for him to get back into the groove, and I played him from the start because he’s trained well in recent weeks. Of course, its a very bitter pill to swallow.” – Marco Rose, Matchday Review (BVB)"

Gio’s involvement in the game may have been minimal, but the player looked hungry from the off, even coming close to scoring the opener in the first half. His availability for the Rangers game would have been a boost for Dortmund, and playing some additional minutes against Gladbach could have helped him get one step closer to finding confidence and form that the long-term layoff had clearly sapped him of. Luckily for both Gio and Dortmund, the injury looks to be not as serious as initially expected.

Gio was not the only injury casualty of the game, as defender Dan-Axel Zagadou also went off in the first half with what seems to be a torn muscle fibre. The layoff for Zagadou looks to be several weeks, which further complicates Dortmund’s defensive situation.

Manuel Akanji is already set to be out for three weeks, which means Dortmund are without a good chunk of their starting options in central defense, and while Zagadou had been far from perfect in his last few games, the simple fact remains that Dortmund lack bodies in this crucial position, which means it will likely continue to be an exploitable weak point in their game for the foreseeable future.

One can only hope that Marco Rose has a solution that does not include having Axel Witsel play alongside Mats Hummels in defense. For all the quality the Belgian international possesses, playing at center-back alongside Hummels would lead to them once again being exploited on the break as neither possesses the pace necessary to single handedly break down opposition counter attacks, something that Rangers proved quite proficient in throughout the first leg.