Why Henrikh Mkhitaryan Was Borussia Dortmund's Most Improved Player in 2015/16

When reflecting on Borussia Dortmund’s 2015-16 campaign, perhaps the most compelling narrative is the resurrection of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s career. 

Just a year ago, many fans had written off the Armenian as a lost cause, a waste of a spot in the lineup and a player who ought to be offloaded to the highest bidder.

Yet the 27-year-old experienced a renaissance of form under Thomas Tuchel, who was able to unlock his talents in ways that Jurgen Klopp never did.

Mkhitaryan gathered plenty of confidence in his first few games playing for the new trainer, amassing eight goals and seven assists by the end of August. He ended the campaign having scored 23 times and set up 32 more in 52 appearances.

Although youngster Julian Weigl deserves consideration, Mkhitaryan was easily the most improved player in the Bundesliga and perhaps Europe overall. To many—including Deutsche Welle and Kicker's (in German) aggregate player ratings for the season—the latter was even the best player in Germany’s top flight during the recent campaign.

Statisticians will cite Mkhitaryan’s massive improvement in terms of goals and assists (his tallies in his first two seasons were respectively 13 goals and 10 assists, and five goals and seven assists), but that only tells part of the story of his development. The other part is how his role at the club has changed. 

When he signed for Dortmund in 2013, Mkhitaryan was meant to replace Bayern Munich-bound talisman Mario Gotze. Perhaps this was not meant to be in function (his predecessor was much more a playmaker; he was more qualified as a finisher), but at least in terms of his influence on the team and its attack.

Mkhitaryan was supposed to be a key player, but Marco Reus was the bigger star than Gotze at the time of the latter’s departure, and he was expected to remain so after Mkhitaryan’s arrival. That was certainly true for the Armenia international's first two seasons at the Signal-Iduna Park.

Yet last season, Reus was often injured and may not ever have truly played at 100 per cent. He recorded good numbers overall (31 combined goals and assists in 43 appearances is impressive by almost any standard), but he was nowhere near the heroic leader he’d been in previous years.

It didn’t feel like Dortmund were Reus’ team, or that the former Monchengladbach man was the leader to drive them towards success. Most teams would struggle without their best player in top form, or at least they would experience a decline in performance.

Yet BVB didn’t exactly suffer without Reus at his best. To the contrary, they recorded a remarkable 78 points in the Bundesliga: Enough to win the league in most seasons and an improvement of 32 more relative to the previous season. They needed someone to step up in the midfield in order to achieve such results, and that man was Mkhitaryan.

A real leader, Mkhitaryan scored in every stage of the DFB-Pokal prior to the final. He was man of the match in the first leg of the Europa League last 32, which put BVB in the driver’s seat. And although his side were knocked out of the competition at the quarter-finals stage, it wasn’t for lack of effort or quality from Mkhitaryan, who played a hand in a goal in both legs.

It’s noteworthy that Mkhitaryan seemed to lack composure in both matches with Bayern (in the Bundesliga and the Pokal) this spring. It was eerily reminiscent of the player he’d been earlier in his Dortmund career, leaving much to be desired when it came to the biggest games.

Many BVB fans can still remember his nightmare show in the 2013-14 Champions League quarter-finals against Real Madrid. He had a poor first leg, and when Reus single-handedly looked to put Dortmund through to the next leg (he scored twice and did all the hard work to set up his team-mate), Mkhitaryan failed to finish. That killed his confidence, and he only recovered a year later.

Yet despite all his improvement, when facing the Munich giants in 2015-16, he wasn’t as sharp: He made poor decisions when counter-attacking and wasn’t nearly his usual, sharp self when presented with opportunities.

In that regard, Mkhitaryan still hasn’t entirely turned the corner. The fact that he let Sven Bender and Sokratis Papastathopoulos take penalties in the Pokal final before him (he wasn’t among the five shooters) speaks of a player lacking confidence.

Mkhitaryan has room for improvement, but he definitely is the Dortmund player who has developed the most over the last year. Not long ago, he was dismissed by many as a failed investment. Yet Tuchel saw real quality in the Armenian and started him.

The playmaker repaid the trainer’s faith in full, and Dortmund reaped the reward. From zero to hero, Mkhitaryan transformed himself into a world superstar last season and is now one of Europe’s most coveted players.

@Mr_Bundesliga