Comparing Borussia Dortmund's 2013-14 Stats to Their 2014-15 Figures

Borussia Dortmund are perhaps one of the most hot and cold teams in European football at the moment and are best compared and contrasted this season with their own campaign last year. 

Jurgen Klopp's side will always be inevitably compared to the might of Bayern Munich, but, in truth, many fans are most critical of this season's squad when they compare them to the bright lights and fortune that beset them in the past. 

As such, a look back at where Dortmund stood last season—at this exact point in the season—is perhaps the best yardstick for which to compare and contrast the nature of the Black and Yellows throughout this turbulent season. 

We will of course begin with the most obvious barometer of success within any domestic league of football: the amount of points won at this stage of the season. 

There's little surprise in stating that with only 33 points in 27 games so far in the Bundesliga this season, Klopp's side have truly done exceptionally poorly in the German top division. This is made perfectly clear when we consider where Dortmund stood after 27 games in the 2013/14 season. 

Sitting in third place, two points behind Schalke and 25 behind Bayern, Klopp's team had amassed 52 points at this stage last year—19 clear points better off than this season and, perhaps most importantly, very comfortable within the German top four. 

This breaks down to more depressing reading when we take a look at how this translates over to points per game. The 2013/14 season at this stage of the year had Dortmund picking up on average 1.92 points per game, while Klopp's team have slumped to 1.22 this year. 

As expected, this takes the team from nearly two points per game to something close to one per game—which is perfectly illustrated by the number of games Dortmund have drawn—i.e failed to win—this season. Last year they drew only four, yet this season that number has jumped up to nine. 

Dortmund may be considerably further behind their former league record, and it's down to their inability to actually win games. 

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Such misfortune has come about through a number of reasons, but none has been more notable than the complete lack of goals within this team this year. Football teams can't win games without goals, and although the Dortmund defence has been far from perfect, it has offered a competent comparison to an attacking line that simply isn't working. 

The first problem has been Klopp's inability to replace Robert Lewandowski. The Polish international, who moved to Bayern in the summer, managed to picked up an impressive 28 goals in all competitions for Dortmund last season—according to Transfermarkt—and nobody has been able to come anywhere near that this year. 

In comparison, Klopp's summer transfer who were brought in to replace the towering striker—Adrian Ramos and Ciro Immobile—have only managed to pick up five and seven goals, respectively, according to WhoScored.com.

In fact, the one distinguished striker in the squad before this season, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, has done relatively well compared to his previous season but has still only managed to ship 15 goals in all competitions. 

Essentially, all three have failed within their own varying degrees of defeat to replace Lewandowski, and it has hurt the black and yellow side. 

The second reason behind these lack of goals has been the imminent demise of Marco Reus and his inability to score and create goals with the same regularity of last season. 

The German international hasn't exactly been bad. As Transfermarkt would point out, he has managed to pick up 11 goals and six assists so far this year. Yet that simply pales in comparison to the 23 goals and 23 assists we saw from the left-sided forward last year. 

Although it may seem like a simple solution to an overly complicated problem, Lewandowski's absence and Reus' drop-off in form really has played a deadly blow to Dortmund's season this year. 

@Sbienkowski