Strange as it might be to say about a player who has scored over 700 goals and is on course for his 13th league title, Robert Lewandowski has had a relatively uneventful career.
Compared to other greats of this era, there was minimal hype in his youth days, at least outside Poland. There has been no Ballon d’Or, probably only because the event was cancelled in 2020. There has been no standout success with his national side. There have been few controversies, no serious injuries, no crises in confidence, no sudden positional shift.
Instead, Lewandowski’s career has been defined by consistency. Incredibly, he’s never finished lower than second in the league since his third-placed finish with Lech Poznan back in 2008-09, and since making his breakthrough at Dortmund, he’s never scored fewer than 17 league goals in a league season.
Convert those goalscoring numbers into ‘goals per 90 minutes’ and Lewandowski’s number are even more impressive. On five occasions, he’s scored better than a goal a game — this season could be the sixth time he achieves that — and he’s not come particularly close to dropping to the (still respectable) a-goal-every-other-game mark since his first season at Dortmund, when he was primarily used from the bench.
But the more intriguing aspect of Lewandowski’s development, and his evolution this season, has concerned his link play, rather than his goalscoring.
After all, when Pep Guardiola signed Lewandowski for Bayern in 2014, essentially as an upgrade on Mario Mandzukic, it was as much about Lewandowski’s all-round game as his goalscoring. As the above graph demonstrates, while Lewandowski was a reliable scorer at Dortmund — with 22, 24 and 20 in his three league campaigns as a regular — he wasn’t yet providing truly spectacular numbers. In fact, where Mandzukic scored 18 as the No 9 in Guardiola’s first season at Bayern in 2013-14, Lewandowski’s debut campaign in 2014-15 only brought 17.
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But this was Guardiola, and therefore link play was considered as valuable as goalscoring, and Lewandowski fused the No 9 and No 10 roles. His final campaign at Dortmund was when the Pole was most involved. His passing numbers at Bayern were relatively steady. But in the past two seasons there’s been a sharp drop-off in how much Lewandowski is involved.
A heatmap of Lewandowski’s touches over time is very revealing.
It suggests that Lewandowski was often receiving the ball in deep positions at Dortmund, before increasingly becoming a penalty-box striker at Bayern.
It then shows a condensed version of that in his three seasons at Barcelona, moving from being a hybrid No 10 and No 9, to more of a typical No 9.
But that graphic only represents when Lewandowski is actually touching the ball. And the key to understanding Lewandowski at Barcelona is that he’s constantly influential, even when he doesn’t touch the ball.
Barca’s goal at the weekend in the 1-1 draw with Betis was a good example. With Lamine Yamal moving infield from the right, Lewandowski knows that the best pass isn’t to him, but instead into Ferran Torres, positioned between the lines. Therefore, Lewandowski shifts his position to ensure the centre-backs are occupied, while also pointing at Torres.
Yamal plays the ball to Torres, who knocks a first-time ball onto Gavi…
… who runs through and fires home.
Lewandowski didn’t touch the ball. But maybe he was still crucial, and that has become his trademark this season, subtly pointing to direct team-mates’ passes and runs.
Here’s a similar situation away at Las Palmas, with Yamal dribbling forward. Again, Lewandowski seems to recognise that the space is behind him, with one of two onrushing midfielders the best beneficiary of Yamal’s pass. Again, he’s pointing the way while occupying an opposition centre-back.
Does Yamal see Lewandowski pointing? Who knows, but he slips in Dani Olmo, who collects the ball neatly…
… and fires home.
Once upon a time, maybe it would have been Lewandowski himself occupying those between-the-lines positions. These days, he’s the one who creates that space. Here’s another similar situation, with Pau Cubarsi on the ball, and Raphinha between the lines. Lewandowski knows Raphinha is the man in space, and again points to him.
In fairness, one of the Sevilla centre-backs was pointing at Raphinha too. But Sevilla still don’t mark him. Raphinha gets the ball in space and smashes home from the edge of the box.
Arguably a more typical way Lewandowski creates space and directs the pass, though, is when Barcelona bypass him and go in behind.
Here’s a brilliant bit of work against Valladolid early on this season, when Lewandowski is being tracked by the right-sided centre-back but changes his position and moves towards the ball.
That brings the defender with him, so Lewandowski actually turns his back on the ball, checks the space has been created, and points — maybe directing the pass, maybe directing the run.
Either way, Cubarsi plays the pass, Raphinha sprints in behind…
… and it ends in a goal.
Here’s a very similar move in the memorable 4-1 thrashing of Bayern. Again, Lewandowski is coming short and tempting the right-sided centre-back higher up the pitch. Again he’s pointing out to Raphinha on the far side. This time it’s Marc Casado on the ball.
But it’s pretty much the same thing, albeit a diagonal pass rather than a ball in behind.
Raphinha controls the ball brilliantly in mid-air, and only has one defender to beat because Dayot Upamecano is attracted to Lewandowski…
… and Raphinha cuts inside to finish.
It’s not just about Lewandowski’s pointing, either. Defenders are so wary of leaving him unmarked that his gravitational impact is huge. Here, in the Copa del Rey comeback against Atletico, the opposition defence seem well organised. But Lewandowski is about to peel away to the far post, opening up space for Torres to run to the near post.
Just one simple movement away from the ball opens up a huge amount of space in the Atletico defence. Raphinha fires in an inswinging cross-shot…
… and Torres is completely unmarked, just needing the ball to glance his head and wrongfoot Jan Oblak.
Lewandowski didn’t touch the ball in any of these moves, and at times some of his movement isn’t particularly spectacular. But in a subtle way, Lewandowski is as crucial to his side’s build-up play as ever — even if the numbers don’t show it.
(Header photo: Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
