Comparing Thomas Muller's 2014/15 Stats to His 2013/14 Numbers

Although it may not seem like it at the moment, Bayern Munich have enjoyed an immensely successful season under Pep Guardiola. One of his standout players has been the evergreen goalscorer that is Thomas Muller.

The comprehensive and somewhat unorthodox forward has once again been at the heart of a Bundesliga-winning campaign. As any fan will tell you, he is perhaps the most integral member of the squad.

Franck Ribery, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger may be the Bavarian poster boys, but this club would rather watch the world burn than hand Muller over to another European club.

Perhaps the most notable stat to sum up Muller's season thus far is the amount of games he's spent playing different positions this season.

As Transfermarkt would have it, over the course of 45 games under Guardiola this season, the German forward has played 26 games as a second striker or the lone frontman for Bayern, while playing just 12 games on his more favoured right wing.

There is a very easy way to explain this. Arjen Robben has come back into prominence this season, and having avoided injury until very recently, the Netherlands international has nailed down the right wing as his and his alone.

As such, Muller has had to contend with either playing through the middle or filling in as the main striker when Robert Lewandowski has either been injured or out of form. Yet this poses a problem.

The Germany international is a natural goalscorer, which suggests he is better suited to being a striker, but the player himself and most Bayern fans would tell you that he is far more effective playing on the right, where he can drift inside or up alongside the main striker for crosses and passes through the opposing defence.

Perhaps there's not been a particularly drastic change in his role, but having gone from playing 37 games on the right wing last season to just 19 this year—with a handful of games remaining—suggests he has, by and large, been asked to fill in wherever he can under Guardiola throughout this current campaign.

Oddly, when we take a look at the forward's stats for this season compared to last year, it doesn't exactly suggest a natural change in how he plays his game.

According to Transfermarkt, Muller has scored 20 goals and created 18 assists in all competitions this season, which, compared to 26 goals and 15 assists last season, doesn't exactly make much sense.

Considering the fact that the Germany international has been moved further up the field this year, you'd expect him to score more goals than he did last season, yet as we can see from the graphic above, Muller has become more of a creator.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for this would be the fact that when asked to play as the lone striker, Muller has often found himself playing with his back to goal and acting as the traditional target man, linking play with midfield and allowing others to play off him and score the goals for Bayern.

This would explain the slight jump in assists and the lower number of goals he has scored this campaign.

Rather than being the player who plays off the striker—as he did with Mario Mandzukic last season—Muller has more often found himself setting up the goals as the direct link-up player rather than the oddly effective runner he is more recognisably known as throughout the sport.

The forward hasn’t had a poorer campaign this time around—in fact, one could argue that he has been more effective—but it has been ever so slightly different.

Like Muller himself, it has twisted and turned into ungodly shapes and sizes but ultimately shown up with the goods when it mattered. This exceptional player has been asked to bend over backward for Guardiola’s side this season, and he has done it with ease.

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