A Progress Report on the Early-Season Form of Borussia Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa

Borussia Dortmund may be in the midst of a poor start to the season and a truly unforeseeable injury crisis, but at least they still have Shinji Kagawa. 

Although most would take that as nothing more than a sarcastic jibe at the former Bundesliga champions, the honest truth is that the Japanese star has been one of the few bright sparks and causes for optimism at the Westfalenstadion for quite some time.

Signed as something of a last-minute guilty pleasure by Jurgen Klopp in the summer transfer window, Kagawa has slotted back into life in Germany seamlessly, while being flung into the first team through sheer necessity before he had even unpacked. 

The ever-astute Transfermarkt would have us believe that the Japanese international has done very little since arriving back in Dortmund, providing just one goal and an assist in seven appearances across all competitions, but the truth of the matter is that he's done much more. 

Playing in his favoured role as a central, attacking midfielder while both Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan remain out injured—the club's first and fourth most expensive signings ever—Kagawa has fitted in perfectly and already began demanding the responsibilities of the team's key playmaker. 

As Squawka would suggest, Kagawa may not have provided many assists this season, but he has created plays in the form of key passes—passes that tend to lead to goalscoring opportunities but don't technically assist in the goal—where the Japanese star has provided eight in just five Bundesliga games. 

The midfielder has played 341 minutes in the German top division so far which, when put that into context, states that Kagawa has created a key pass every 42 minutes. 

Squawka.com

As we can see from the graphic above, again from Squawka, we note that Kagawa actually has a better key-passes-per-90-minutes ratio than high-flying Bayern Munich star and former prodigy Mario Gotze, while playing catch-up with league leaders Arjen Robben and Wolfsburg's Kevin De Bruyne. 

When we then consider that he's doing this while playing in a side as dysfunctional as Dortmund are at the moment, it adds extra gravitas to the achievement; Kagawa may not be playing in one of the better sides in Germany at the moment but he's still performing, albeit rather discreetly. 

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Unfortunately it would seem as though whatever hope the attacking midfielder had of starting life afresh at Dortmund this season, it has been hijacked by the crisis in form that has affected the entire club over the past two months. 

Kagawa has looked great at times and certainly offered enough going forward to show glimpses of the former star, but all too often it is the misfiring striker, mistimed defensive midfielder or clumsy defender that has undermined his best efforts to turn a new leaf. 

If one thing is clear about Kagawa's season so far it is that we now have the old Japanese star that lit up the Bundesliga back amongst us. He may not be at his very best as he once was for Dortmund, at least not yet, but he's much closer to that than the man we used to see slumped over a Manchester United substitute bench. 

Perhaps not a perfect start to life in Dortmund, but considering the circumstances it's almost impossible to say that Kagawa hasn't been a breath of fresh air around this famous club. 

@Sbienkowski