"Saying 'this is the best Reus ever' is a bit over the top for me," so said the man himself when questioned by Süddeutsche Zeitung last week. Is the Borussia Dortmund captain right? He has got off to his best ever season start, with eight goals and three assists in his opening 11 games…
As far as bundesliga.com can tell, there have been three distinct peaks in Reus' career:
Time to investigate…
Gladbach's galloping Foal
Reus may have spent 10 years in Dortmund's youth academy, but it was Mönchengladbach who gave him his Bundesliga debut in August 2009. Die Schwarzgelben had let Reus leave for Rot Weiss Ahlen aged 17 with his physical stature in question, but less than three years later he was scoring his first Bundesliga goal for the Foals following a slaloming 55-yard run against Mainz.
Reus spent three seasons with Gladbach, the last of which saw him playing in his most advanced role to date. Lining up alongside, if slightly behind, Mike Hanke in Lucien Favre's 4-4-2 formation, Reus contributed 13 assists alongside his 18 goals. With a direct hand in a goal every 90 minutes he played, it's little wonder Reus helped Gladbach pull up a chair to Europe's top table for the first time since their 1970s Jupp Heynckes-led heyday.
The apple of Europe's eye
Dortmund, no doubt regretting their decision to release Reus five-and-a-half years before, duly re-signed the now nascent talent in January 2012. Having roared to back-to-back Bundesliga titles, current Liverpool manager Klopp was reluctant to change a winning formula that had seen Robert Lewandowski score 22 goals at the tip of his 4-2-3-1 formation the previous campaign. Reus was repurposed as a wide attacker playing off the Pole, sharing touchline duties with Jakub Blaszczykowski in his first season and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in his second.
Not yet wrestling with the ankle injuries that cost him nearly 150 days of competitive first-team action between June 2014 and January 2015, Reus was a force unleashed in his early years under Klopp. Right-footed, he had the pace and trickery to cut inside at will, making or taking 26 Bundesliga goals in his first campaign, as well as chipping in with four goals and two assists in the Champions League to set up an all-Bundesliga final, in which BVB were edged 2-1 by Klassiker rivals Bayern. Reus' domestic output even climbed to 16 goals and 16 assists the following season…
At the height of his powers, Reus missed only six Bundesliga games during his first two years at the Signal Iduna Park. He reached a top speed of 21.2 miles per hour (not topped since), beat his man an average of eight times per game, and covered more than seven miles per 90 minutes. Lionel Messi reportedly doubted that Reus would be a good fit at Barcelona. In retrospect, one suspects he may not have wanted to share the limelight.
Key facts:
Aging like wine?
So, what about the Reus of today? Now 29, the BVB captain has been repurposed as a No. 10 by his former Gladbach mentor, Favre. A smidgen of pace has gone - Reus' top speed this season is a still respectable 20.7 mph - but the extra yard in his head leaves him ahead of almost every opponent he comes up against.
"I've learned to accept that my body might not be built for the full 60 games in a season," says Reus, despite having started the opening 11 games of a campaign for the first time in his career. "My body needs a break here and then, especially because of the sprint-intensive position I'm playing in attack."
Whether Reus keeps it up all season remains to be seen, but for now, the numbers are startling. Dortmund are top, four points clear of Gladbach and, having beaten Bayern 3-2, seven points better off than the Bavarians. Paco Alcacer has scored a league-high eight goals in just 236 minutes; Jadon Sancho has a Bundesliga best six assists, but with a direct hand in 12 goals, Reus has outdone them both. His 7.3 miles per game covered is also a career-best.