After 2-0 in Stuttgart: one BVB man makes Kicker XI | OneFootball

In the 2-0 win in Stuttgart, BVB had shone for a long time solely through a solid defense and had shown virtually nothing going forward. This strong defensive display led to one BVB player being included in the “Team of the Day,” which kicker selects matchday after matchday in the Bundesliga — only the second time for him this season.

This lineup of the eleven players considered the best performers in their respective positions on the matchday is dominated this time by Bayer Leverkusen, who also provided plenty of attacking highlights in their 6-3 win over VfL Wolfsburg. In the back four there are this time — believe it or not — two players from 1. FC Heidenheim, who earned one of what will presumably be their last points in the Bundesliga for the time being with a 2-2 draw in Mönchengladbach.

On the left is Tom Bischof of FC Bayern Munich, who completes the back four of the Team of the Day, with Nico Schlotterbeck of BVB on the left side of central defense.

Schlotterbeck was not rated as outstanding in the match in Stuttgart, but as “good” with a grade of 2.0. That actually made him the highest-rated Borussia Dortmund player in this match. Schlotterbeck’s teammates, who also kept a clean sheet, received a 2.5 in the case of Waldemar Anton, while Ramy Bensebaini was given a 3.0 by kicker.

Photo: IMAGO

Schlotterbeck very composed in Stuttgart

At the same time, Nico Schlotterbeck was also named “Man of the Match” in a game in which, aside from the turbulent closing phase, very little happened overall, to the point that there were complaints of boredom, especially in the second half. That is simply the result of good defensive work, which is being duly recognized here in the person of Nico Schlotterbeck.

This strong performance is likely to give fresh momentum to his standing in the still ongoing contract extension negotiations with BVB, after he had stood out the previous week for no fewer than two misplaced passes that led to goals conceded. However, this was in the shirt of the national team, which still won 4-3 in Switzerland anyway.

By far the leader in this category remains Harry Kane, who has already made the Team of the Matchday ten times, ahead of Deniz Undav with seven nominations. The fact that Undav was not selected again this weekend was also due to Nico Schlotterbeck’s strong performance.

For BVB, Nico Schlotterbeck is only the fifth player to be selected more than once. Karim Adeyemi is the only one who has made the Team of the Day three times. Alongside Schlotterbeck, Ramy Bensebaini, Julian Ryerson and Yan Couto have each been included twice so far.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.