Breaking Down Marco Reus' Stats for Borussia Dortmund This Season

Borussia Dortmund didn't quite look like themselves on Saturday, when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Cologne, yet much of that was down to the fact Marco Reus didn't quite look like himself. 

Jurgen Klopp's team is full of undoubted talents who could be match-winners in any side, but there's no doubt about it, Germany's second-biggest club don't look like themselves unless Reus is firing on all cylinders.

Creating Chances

If we were to give Reus one, specific attribute for which we could use to define him from one week to the next, it would simply be "goalscorer." 

Not exactly a full-blown striker, but then again not quite as reserved as a simple midfielder, Reus is undoubtedly cut from the same cloth as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and other goalscoring wide forwards.

Looking at his stats through WhoScored.com, we find that Reus averages 3.5 shots on goal in every Bundesliga clash, putting him above the club's top goalscorer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, by 0.4 shots and Henrikh Mkhitaryan by more than a whole shot per game. 

Similarly, when we bring in the parameters of the debate to just Reus versus Aubameyang, it makes for interesting reading. The Germany international has been injured for much of the season and therefore missed more games than his comrade, yet Reus still maintains a higher goals-per-game ratio than Aubameyang, with 0.61 goals to the striker's 0.51.

Is Reus Dortmund's Top Playmaker?

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If we were to take a look at Dortmund's stats for the entire team, via WhoScored, we can quickly debunk one of the biggest myths around the side these days: Reus is not a playmaker, and he certainly isn't the one pulling the strings at the club.

To illustrate this properly we have the graphic above, which shows how many minutes it has taken each of Dortmund's key forward players to make an assist in the Bundesliga and the Champions League so far this season.

Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any standout playmaker at Dortmund. There's no Andrea Pirlo, no Xavi and certainly no Paul Scholes; assists are spread throughout Klopp's side.

In the German domestic league, it seems to be Ilkay Gundogan who leads the way, making an assist every 406 minutes, while Kevin Grosskreutz—of all people—seems to lead the way in Europe's premier club competition with an assist every 161 minutes.

In truth, we're sager taking the data from the Bundesliga, with more games and therefore a larger selection of examples, to suggest just who pulls the strings in Klopp's side. As we can see, Reus offers plenty in terms of assists, but he is by no means the sole assist-maker in this Dortmund side. 

Is He Injury Prone?

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Much of what has been said will come as welcome reading to Dortmund fans the world over but there is a large aspect of Reus' game that we simply can't overlook when we're considering what he brings to the team over the course of the season.

Memories of Saturday's abject performance against Cologne are still fresh for most fans of the club, as Reus once again looked unfit and far from match sharpness. 

As we can see in the graphic above, which shows the number of games Reus has missed for Dortmund over the past two-and-a-half seasons, the Germany international has missed an incredible amount of games, and it doesn't look like a trend that will be ending any time soon. 

Ultimately, it has been a run-of-the-mill season for Reus so far. He has scored goals and created chances but also had to deal with injuries throughout the campaign.

@Sbienkowski