Comparing Marco Reus' 2014/15 Stats to His 2015/16 Numbers

Much has been made about Borussia Dortmund's impressive season, and rightly so. The Black and Yellows are playing their best Bundesliga season ever, as the club's official website pointed out, and would walk the league if it wasn't for Bayern Munich.

They're also firmly entrenched as the team to beat in the UEFA Europa League and are one win away from a third consecutive trip to the DFB-Pokal final in Berlin.

Many players have earned praise in this fantastic campaign so far, but one man who's almost flown under the radar a bit is Marco Reus. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's goalscoring frenzy and Henrikh Mkhitaryan's continued excellence overshadow the Germany international's more than solid season.

The 26-year-old, who recently captained his side in his 100th league appearance for the Black and Yellows, a 3-1 win over Hoffenheim, explained Dortmund's much-improved form this season in an interview with Oliver Muller of daily newspaper Welt (h/t Stephan Uersfeld of ESPN FC):

"

Our style of play has completely changed, and now we have much more possession. 

It helps our team to develop. We had some games in which it didn't work out during the first half of the season, but this might have something to do with us getting used to it.

[...]

 

[We're able to] control opponents we've had our difficulties with in the past.

"

For Reus personally, continued fitness has been the most important change in comparison to the ill-fated 2014/15 season.

In that campaign, the attacking midfielder had to look on from the sidelines far too often as his team dropped deeper and deeper into a downward spiral. Playing in only 29 games across competitions, Reus' form suffered from a constant stop and go of injuries, rehabilitation and comebacks.

It's not like he hasn't missed games this season, though. Various injuries and illnesses mean head coach Thomas Tuchel had to make do without Reus in eight games, but the 26-year-old hasn't had to endure any lengthy absences. He's already played in four more matches than last season with two months to go.

It's no surprise his statistical output in the current campaign looks far more impressive: Scoring 19 and assisting six goals, Reus is almost quietly putting together his most prolific season at Signal Iduna Park. 

Only in Reus' second year back at his boyhood club, the 2013/14 season, has he scored more goals (23 in 44 matches).

As the graphic from Oscar Wood shows below, however, he's less active than in recent years in terms of his involvement in shots:

What looks odd at first blush is actually a sign of improvement of the whole team: The Black and Yellows rely far less on the individual quality of Reus.

The 26-year-old averaged 3.74 shots and 2.53 key passes per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga last season, per Squawka, compared to 3.00 and 2.00 this campaign.

He's also almost cut his shots attempted from outside the box in half, from 1.50 to 0.87 per 90 minutes, which largely explains why his shot accuracy has risen from 50 to 59 per cent.

It's important to note Reus isn't only profiting by Dortmund's impressive goal tally and scoring "irrelevant" goals in big wins. He's still "Mr. 1-0," as the club dubbed him on Twitter (link in German).

After three of his seven league goals opened the scoring last season, he's done so six times this season, "more than any other player in the league," as the club's official website pointed out after the win over Mainz earlier in March.

Reus's impressive numbers have also translated well to the Europa League, where he's scored eight in 11 games, including qualifiers. With those eight goals, the 26-year-old is already Dortmund's all-time leading goalscorer on the European stage, as stat provider Opta tweeted:

Dortmund's No. 11 has almost been an unlucky charm for his boyhood club, seeing as the Ruhr side have lost a final in every year Reus has spent with the club as a professional footballer and he's yet to win a trophy with the Black and Yellows—the German Supercup hardly counts.

Reus will look to improve on his already solid numbers in the final stretch of the season and hope he can finally lift some silverware before the campaign is over.

All performance data via Transfermarkt.co.uk unless otherwise noted.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.