Jadon Sancho is the catalyst for Borussia Dortmund’s goal-scoring record

Borussia Dortmund are the Bundesliga’s lone undefeated side, and a large part of their success can be attributed to Jadon Sancho.

Coming into this season, Borussia Dortmund looked like a real wild card in the Bundesliga, given the majority of their key players would be either young and unproven or older, veteran players aiming to show they can be regulars in a Champions League side.

Despite drawing 2-2 to Hertha Berlin on the weekend after a last-gasp Salomon Kalou penalty, Dortmund are in first place in the Bundesliga with 21 points. There have been several scares, but Dortmund remain undefeated and have the league’s best goal differential by some distance (plus-19).

It’s no surprise Marco Reus, with five goals and three assists, has been at the heart of Dortmund’s success, but Jadon Sancho’s emergence as the top assist-provider in Europe has been just as critical.

At 18 years old, Sancho is staking his claim as one of the best young players in the world, and he’s currently tied with AC Milan’s Suso for the most assists in Europe’s top five leagues. Whereas Suso has played in 720 minutes as a full-time starter, Sancho has racked up his gaudy haul of assists in just 377 minutes of league play. He’s appeared in six of his nine games as a substitute, joining teammate Paco Alcacer as two of the most efficient players in the league due to their high rate of goals and assists in limited minutes.

Sancho doubled his tally of goals this season to four by scoring a critical brace in BVB’s recent draw against Hertha. For the most part, Sancho has been a difference-maker in this rising Dortmund side due to his ability to set up others, but he’s more than capable of being a goalscoring threat. In his last three games in all competitions, Sancho has four goals, including a Champions League goal in Dortmund’s surprising 4-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid.

Lucien Favre’s system offers Reus heaps of freedom in a central role, and while Reus does interchange with the likes of Sancho and Christian Pulisic on the wings, his most effective work has come as a central attacking midfielder. Dortmund play their center midfielders (some combination of Axel Witsel, Thomas Delaney, Julian Weigl and Mahmoud Dahoud) in deeper roles to give their attacking players as much space as possible ahead.

That puts pressure on Dortmund to receive creative, intelligent play from their wingers. Sancho epitomizes creativity and intelligence; not only is he able to leave defenders in the dust with his supremely quick feet, but he’s also apt to find teammates like Reus or Alcacer with singing low crosses into the area. Sancho is able to buy time to play an effective pass because of his dribbling skills, and his balls into the penalty area often have lethal outcomes for opposing defenses.

This season, Sancho has done so much damage off of the bench thanks to his pace and instincts. He’s always working to find space, and he isn’t afraid to push up the field, knowing that an outlet, specifically Reus, will be available. The chemistry that he and Reus have shown together has been devastating for defenses, as they simply cannot cope with Sancho’s trickery or the clever one-twos that these attackers conjure. They seem to innately understand where the other will be, and while Reus has always been this adept at sensing his teammates, the fact that Sancho is on the same wavelength at just the age of 18 is quite extraordinary.

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Alcacer has been something of Dortmund’s “X-Factor” this season, as the striker loaned from FC Barcelona has strung together a record-breaking seven goals in his first 127 Bundesliga minutes. To say that Sancho is an X-Factor, on the other hand, would almost be selling him short, because he’s been the team’s most productive player in terms of combined goals and assists (10) thus far.

After Reus, Sancho has been Dortmund’s best and most vital player. Without him, Reus wouldn’t enjoy the space he gets in the middle of the field and wouldn’t have this kind of attacking flexibility. Furthermore, every attacking player on Dortmund benefits greatly from Sancho’s knack for creating chances from absolutely nothing. He works hard, he sends teasing through balls and he’s even become a legitimate goalscoring threat.

Prior to the start of the 2018-19 Bundesliga season, Dortmund seemed like a team that would struggle to score goals, which was a narrative as recently as their 1-1 tie to Hoffenheim on matchday 4. However, they’ve emerged as one of the best attacking teams in Europe with 29 league goals, second only to PSG.

Much of that success stems from the width and end product that Sancho give to this side. For the entirety of the season, Sancho has been in unplayable form, and it is often difficult to believe that he is just 18. Sancho’s production does not appear to be a fluke by any means, and if he can keep playing at this level, he could help Dortmund hold off Bayern Munich and any other challengers in the Bundesliga title race.