Do Bayern Munich Need Reported Premier League Target Robert Lewandowski?

Bayern Munich currently sit top of the German Bundesliga with a healthy margin that was stretched to 11 points following Friday's comprehensive 4-1 win over Cologne on the back of the 6-0 and 8-0 scorelines from their previous league outings.

The Bavarians are coasting at the moment, and it doesn't look as though an end to their dominance is in sight. 

However, bubbling under the smooth surface of what should be another successful league campaign, coach Pep Guardiola continues to scrutinise his side. Things aren't perfect up front just yet, and there may be room for a change. 

Such altercations will, of course, come in the form of one man: Robert Lewandowski. The striker has continued to puzzle and frustrate his perfectionist manager, so much so that fans and critics alike continue to ask the same question from one week to the next: Are Bayern better or worse off with Lewandowski?

Suggestions that the forward's time in Munich may well be coming to a close are grounded in healthy speculation across the media. 

Very recently, Bundesliga columnist Raphael Honigstein addressed the concept for ESPN FC, going back and forth on the notion that Lewandowski may be leaving this summer, but not before the Guardian's Barry Glendenning made his own suggestions in the paper's rumour mill on February 23: 

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Although he’s scored 12 goals for Bayern Munich since his controversial move from Borussia Dortmund last summer, the Allianz Arena jury remains very much out on the 26-year-old Polish striker, who is believed to have a fan in Louis van Gaal and could be available for £30 million.

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So does Guardiola want or even need to keep Lewandowski?

When we take a look at the striker's stats for Bayern, specifically comparing the team's performances with and without him over the course of this season, they tend to suggest that Lewandowski is an integral part of this side.

Bayern are expected to pick up maximum points within the German top division, regardless of who plays up front or scores the goals, yet according to stats from Transfermarkt, their average points-per-game ratio takes a rather drastic drop from 2.7 to just 2 when Lewandowski isn't in the side.

Similarly, Bayern's goals-per-game average when the striker is in the team stands at around 2.6, but when he is absent, they have only averaged 2.25. 

This has never been more notable than over the past month, when Lewandowski was present throughout Bayern's demolitions of Cologne, Paderborn and Hamburg. Guardiola's team scored 18 goals in three games, and four of them came from the apparently out-of-favour striker. 

Interestingly enough, through reason or simple coincidence, key games in which Guardiola has chosen to bench Lewandowski have tended to do little but prove how much Bayern need the striker.

The coach's decision to start Thomas Muller up front against Schalke at the start of February resulted in a bleak 1-1 draw that required some magic from Arjen Robben, while the recent 0-0 bore away to Shakhtar Donetsk—with Muller again leading the line—offered very little in the form of attacking flair.

Guardiola may not want to admit it, but his side score more goals, pick up more points and just seem to be a more formidable foe with Lewandowski plays.

As many have pointed out, over the course of Guardiola's career, the Catalan free-thinker has very rarely found much use for traditional forwards. In fact, you could go as far as to suggest he straight up discriminates against the position and those who play it.

At Barcelona the most famous example was Zlatan Ibrahmovic, who was brought in to combat the criticism that the Spanish side had little preparation or planning for a plan B if Guardiola's tiki-taka system didn't work. However, the notorious Swede stood little chance of fitting into the formation and was off within just one season of signing for the club for €46 million. 

Last year in Munich, Guardiola faced a similar problem with first-choice striker Mario Mandzukic, who had up to that point proved his worth countless times after being signed from Wolfsburg by former manager Jupp Heynckes.

The Croatian was just as useful to Guardiola—scoring 26 goals last season—but he knew his days were numbered from the start. The new manager had his own system, and lumbering, physical forwards weren't part of that.

Oddly enough, there's actually very little to distinguish between Lewandowski and Mandzukic, suggesting that Bayern signed the striker simply to ever so slightly upgrade upon one of Europe's best forwards. Yet that doesn't solve the problem of how the Poland international fits into this team under Guardiola.

Through his own genius, or a simple, stubborn mind, Guardiola seems dead set on how he wants his side to play and win games, and at this moment in time, it doesn't seem as though Lewandowski offers much to that vision. The Pole, a physical, old-fashioned striker looks outdated and of little use in the sleek, attacking football Guardiola is intent on playing.

Lewandowski may be scoring goals and performing well in Munich, but that's not to say he stands any chance of sticking around as long as Guardiola is in Bavaria.