Marco Reus and Borussia Dortmund Must Build on Mainz Win

When Marco Reus scored Borussia Dortmund's first goal at Mainz 05 on Friday, it lifted a burden from the 26-year-old's shoulders.

One could see it in his celebration: He clenched his fists, screamed at the top of his lungs and gave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who had assisted the goal, a bear hug.

DANIEL ROLAND/Getty Images

He finally got the monkey off his back after a disappointing international break that saw him miss a number of chances a player of Reus' quality shouldn't miss. Struggling for form under new BVB head coach Thomas Tuchel, this was an important first step. It's one that Reus needs to build on.

And so too do Borussia Dortmund.

While they won for the first time after a run of four winless games in the Bundesliga and the Europa League, it wasn't a great performance. "Relief outweighed joy" at the end of the game, as ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko noted.

Tuchel lauded his team's mentality in the postgame press conference (via BVB.de): "What delights me the most is that we accepted things as they were and didn't show any uneasiness with the way the match was going."

Dortmund definitely were deserved winners, but they had their goalkeeper to thank for it. Roman Burki enjoyed his best day in a Dortmund shirt after making the move from relegated SC Freiburg in the summer.

Burki's interventions were crucial, as the expected goals chart from ESPN FC's Michael Caley showed.

"

xG map for Mainz-BVB. Not only was this crazy fun, it easily could've been crazier and funner. pic.twitter.com/plhi82yypb

— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) October 16, 2015"

Dortmund's defence continues to struggle midway through the first half of the season. Mainz often had too much space to string together short passes around Borussia's penalty box. Consequentially, Dortmund gifted Mainz three golden free-kick opportunities around 20 metres in front of goal. 

Burki's finest save came on one of those occasions, as he tipped a curler from Jairo on to the crossbar. Spanish broadcaster Canal+ captured Burki's fine work in a tweet.

Dortmund's evening could have been much more comfortable, as they missed a number of good chances, none bigger than a 46th-minute penalty overwhelmed referee Tobias Stieler awarded Dortmund. It was a horrible decision, as Niko Bungert had won the ball fairly against Aubameyang and outside of the penalty box, to boot.

DANIEL ROLAND/Getty Images

Reus' first-ever miss from the spot saw justice prevail, but Dortmund have to hope it didn't put a dent in their star man's confidence.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Shinji Kagawa missed other chances to kill the game. "Beautifully slid through by assist machine Matthias Ginter, Kagawa’s effort was the worst of the lot," noted Lewis Ambrose for Yellowwallpod.com. 

Dortmund had to grind the game out, showing good mental strength and resiliency in the process. Tuchel afterwards said (via BVB.de) he had expected the game to be tight: "We knew that things wouldn't be easy for us out there and that we wouldn't dominate the match like we've dominated other matches."

Tuchel was right, the game didn't go according to this season's plan for Dortmund, as they were outpossessed for just the second time under their new head coach. The frantic game also saw Dortmund complete only 75 percent of their passes, a full seven percentage points off their seasonal rate, according to WhoScored.com.

Michael Probst/Associated Press

Reus' best performance this season could pose a conundrum to Tuchel going forward. He played his attacking midfielder on the left wing at Mainz, with Mkhitaryan swinging over to the right. Back in his more natural position, Reus looked more lively and into the game than he had on the right side. 

One school of thought is that Reus played on the left because of the absence of Marcel Schmelzer. Dortmund's regular left-back missed the game with a strained thigh muscle. Without Schmelzer providing width deep into enemy territory, Dortmund didn't overload the left half-space as frequently as they had done to start the season. Reus, who plays better in space than in tight areas, benefited from that approach.

With a busy schedule in the coming weeks, Dortmund's 2-0 win away from home serves as a good confidence boost. They certainly will have to play better to keep the wins coming, but a quality win on the road should help them get back on track.

Thursday's Europa League game at Gabala FK should provide Tuchel an opportunity to rest some players before Dortmund meet FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga next Sunday.

Lars is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.