9 - Robert Lewandowski

[El Gato]

Being Polish, he's the least Polish player there ever was. Which is a compliment. Man doesn't drink, trains religiously, got a partner who encourages the lifestyle, doesn't bother chasing career moves, made a career in a country most 'ardent' Polish football fans envy and despise. He's breaking down football barriers in a post-Soviet Slavic culture. A new age forward who is as successful as the 'exotic' latino players. Bar several Balkan and other historical figures like Puskas or Stoichkov, there hasn't been many like him in this sport. Probably none with this degree of continuity.

It's saddening how he also knows he's fighting a losing battle by providing this example of what it takes to be a premier athlete. Most footballers in Poland and probably across most of Eastern Europe still live the life of a party and treat qualifying to the World Cup as an achievement. Continuation of small team mindset.

That being said I don't think he's the GOAT calibre striker. Someone mentioned his best performances are still those under Klopp and it's true. There's something missing for that, lack of THE game. He's not far from being a serious BDO candidate, Modrić is one of many players who will know be having real shots at getting such recognition for their talent.

 

[soul24rage]

Make a statistic comparison of domestic games and minutes among top strikers in England and Spain to compare him with (past 5 years)

I was talking more about the good PR that he gets. I don't think he gets enough credit for what he does.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Make a statistic comparison of domestic games and minutes among top strikers in England and Spain to compare him with (past 5 years):

Suarez - 203 Games - 17.153 Minutes
Lewandowski - 200 Ganes - 16.762 Minutes
Kane - 199 Games - 16.453 Minutes
Aguero - 186 Games - 16.453 Minutes
Benzema - 176 Games - 13.274 Minutes

This means Lewandowski hasn't been exposed to lesser minutes than any other forward in domestic games bar Suarez. Which makes a lot of sense, remember Bayern never really had a serious backup for him. He is Plan A and there has never been Plan B.

Now add International games and NT games to that aswell.

Suarez - 53 int Games for Barca - 4.711 Minutes - 31 Games for Uruguay - 2.724 Minutes
Lewandowski -55 int games for Bayern - 4.606 Minutes - 49 Games for Poland - 3.916 Minutes
Kane - 40 int. Games for Tottenham - 3.048 Minutes - 43 Games for England - 3.336 Minutes
Aguero - 39 int. Games for City - 2.925 Minutes - 40 Games for Argentina - 2.291 Minutes
Benzema - 63 int. Games for Madrid - 4.747 Minutes - 10 Games for France (before kicked out) - 598 Minutes

This makes a grand total of minutes and games played since 2014:

1. Lewandowski - 304 Games - 25.284 Minutes
2. Suarez - 287 Games - 24.588 Minutes
3. Kane - 282 Games - 22.837 Minutes
4. Aguero - 265 Games - 19.470 Minutes
5. Benzema - 249 Games - 18.617 Minutes

Now the injury list in all these 5 years:

Lewandowski injured for 11 games, longest time ever injured: 2 weeks
Suarez injured for 15 games, longest time ever injured : 5 weeks
Kane injured for 35 games, longest time ever injured: 7 weeks
Aguero injured for 38 games, longest time ever injured: 6 weeks
Benzema injured for 39 games, longest time ever injured: 6 weeks

He is by far the most overplayed forward around bar Ronaldo AND he is injured practically never. His injury list consists of simple knocks and bone injuries, almost not a single muscle injurys over the entirety of an entire career.
AND he is 31 and still in prime. That is both a mixture of freak genetics and Ronaldo levels of taking care of yourself.

Very impressive. He is the best now.
Actually I think Aguero is similar level, while playing in tougher league.

 

[Messigician]

He goes missing in big games to be fair and is rather slow.

 

[El Flaco]

[tw]1187032523437760516[/tw]

[tw]1187032531599790080[/tw]

 

[Donauwelle]

The reason why Lewy does not score in the final stage of the CL is a different one.

He scored 8 of his 9 final stages goals (without penalties) with Müller as striker partner - only one without. Similar story he always has - last season until the winter break he scored 0.4 goals per match without müller - 1.2 or 1.5 goals per match with Müller as hanging striker.

Somehow all coaches since Heynckes prefer to atleast play the first legs with a 4-3-3 (Pep because he wanted to "control", Ancelotti because it was his prefered formation with Thiago/Vidal/Alonso in midfield, Heynckes in 2018 partly did not have the choice because of winger injuries) and only shift to the 4-2-3-1 when Bayern is behind - and then even with the more offensive variation it is really hard to score against the better opponents when they can hold onto a lead.

It is another game when you have 2 striker(like) players that understand each other perfectly together in the box.

 

[Yannik]

[tw]1187032531599790080[/tw]

Stats like this are always bullshit when posted without context or comparison. Check the greatest strikers of the past 2 decades.

Lewandowski scored 18 goals in 33 games of the CL Knock Out Stage which makes it 0,55 goals per game.

Raúl for example has also 18 goals in 48 knockout games. (0,38 per game)
Van Nistelroy has 6 in 13 games (0,46)
Suarez has 11 in 23 games (0,48)
Shevchenko has 18 in 32 games (0,56)
Ibrahimovic has 9 in 40 games (0,23)
Benzema has 16 in 68 games (0,24)
Henry has 10 in 34 games (0,29)
Inzaghi has 16 in 30 games (0,53)

Aside from Messi and Ronaldo only Thomas Müller has more goals than Lewandowski in the Knock out stages of the CL (only 1 more). And this record will likely be broken in the near time. I guess that's not bad for a "flat track bully". He will also most likely finish his career with the 3rd most CL goals in all of his career, and only RvN from the above names played fewer CL games in total.

Seriously, break down such stats for specific goalscorers and absolutely every striker is a "flat track bully" because it's a perfectly normal occurence that smaller teams will get more likely to be scored on. All strikers benefit from this, not just exclusively Lewandowski like this Tweet suggests.

There's also a lot of stuff the tweeter conveniently left out in his breakdown. For example, against whom all the goals were that he didn't post in the tweet:
27 of his 58 goals come against clubs currently ranking in the top 20 of European clubs by UEFA coefficient. Yet another statistic in the "only Messi and Ronaldo are actually beating this"-bracket.
In fact: Of all the big teams that Lewandowski faced, ONLY Liverpool weren't scored on by him (yet).

 

[MTL_Barca]

Teams usually play more group stage games than knockout games and naturally the opponents in the group stage are easier to beat as at least 1-2 of them are small teams so i'm not surprised by that.

Lewandowski not being decisive in the most important games for Bayern is brought up often and i'd say it's a valid point but that tweet is still bullshit as i'm sure it looks quite similar for most strikers. Thats the same for the league games, it's just logical strikers score more vs weaker opponents.

 

[EdmondDantes]

Best 9 in world football this year?

 

[Jenks]

Best 9 in world football this year?

Best goalscorer this year.

 

[EdmondDantes]

His technique and dribbling ability are ridiculous for a 9 too. In tight spaces, he's one of the best I've ever seen.

 

[Ernesto GOATverde Tejedor]

Incredibly underated player who never gets the credit he deserves. Best Polish player of all time. Has to be in the top 10 eastern block players of all time. Although that is a hard list to make because of all the great players of the past. Kubala, Yashin, Kocsis, Bican, Potroh from Barcaforum and the legendary Puskas.

Also would have to add Suker, Hagi, Stoichkov, Nedved, and one of the greatest dribblers of all time Dejan Savicevic.

 

[El Gato]

Incredibly underated player who never gets the credit he deserves. Best Polish player of all time.

He's not underrated.

He does get shitload of the credit, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries.

That said, many Poles would hesitate to say he's the best with how the generation of the 70s and 80s were.

 

[KingLeo10]

Stats like this are always bullshit when posted without context or comparison. Check the greatest strikers of the past 2 decades.

Lewandowski scored 18 goals in 33 games of the CL Knock Out Stage which makes it 0,55 goals per game.

Raúl for example has also 18 goals in 48 knockout games. (0,38 per game)
Van Nistelroy has 6 in 13 games (0,46)
Suarez has 11 in 23 games (0,48)
Shevchenko has 18 in 32 games (0,56)
Ibrahimovic has 9 in 40 games (0,23)
Benzema has 16 in 68 games (0,24)
Henry has 10 in 34 games (0,29)
Inzaghi has 16 in 30 games (0,53)

Aside from Messi and Ronaldo only Thomas Müller has more goals than Lewandowski in the Knock out stages of the CL (only 1 more). And this record will likely be broken in the near time. I guess that's not bad for a "flat track bully". He will also most likely finish his career with the 3rd most CL goals in all of his career, and only RvN from the above names played fewer CL games in total.

Seriously, break down such stats for specific goalscorers and absolutely every striker is a "flat track bully" because it's a perfectly normal occurence that smaller teams will get more likely to be scored on. All strikers benefit from this, not just exclusively Lewandowski like this Tweet suggests.

There's also a lot of stuff the tweeter conveniently left out in his breakdown. For example, against whom all the goals were that he didn't post in the tweet:
27 of his 58 goals come against clubs currently ranking in the top 20 of European clubs by UEFA coefficient. Yet another statistic in the "only Messi and Ronaldo are actually beating this"-bracket.
In fact: Of all the big teams that Lewandowski faced, ONLY Liverpool weren't scored on by him (yet).

Interesting stats. Couple of very shocking returns by Ibra, Benzema, Raul, RvN, Henry, and Suarez.

If I recall correctly, Messi's at ~46 goals in the KO stages. And CR7 is somewhere around 65. That's where the Ballon D'Ors are won.

I hope you guys take out Liverpool this season in the CL.

 

[Ernesto GOATverde Tejedor]

He's not underrated.

He does get shitload of the credit, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries.

That said, many Poles would hesitate to say he's the best with how the generation of the 70s and 80s were.

Depends how high you rate him. Had he left Borussia and joined Real I feel he would have won numerous CLs and matched the goalscoring rate of Ronaldo. At 31 he would still be there banging them in. With a few CLs and numerous seasons of more than a goal a game I wonder how he would be viewed. He certainly had it in him as he is a better finisher and number 9 than Ronaldo.

Also cannot think of a Polish player better. Only Boniek comes to mind and he wasn't close to Lewa.