Analyzing Robert Lewandowski's Early-Season Form for Bayern Munich

In recent weeks, Robert Lewandowski has emerged as world football’s most in-form striker. And with two-and-a-half months having passed in the 2015-16 campaign, discussion of the Bayern Munich and Poland attacker’s form should by now have been replaced by talk of his class. 

Like the Warsaw native, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Aguero have also scored five goals in a game this season. However, Lewandowski has shown consistency that leaves the competition miles behind.

The striker’s tally of 22 goals in 15 games for club and country leaves elite strikers like Aguero, Luis Suarez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the dust. Lewandowski has scored more than twice as many goals as Ronaldo (10) and three times as many as Messi (seven). And this comes despite the 27-year-old having not scored even a single penalty.

There simply seems to be no stopping the prolific center forward, who, in his 168th Bundesliga appearance, became the fastest foreign player to reach 100 goals in the German top flight. Even Gerd Muller’s 44-year-old record of 40 goals in a Bundesliga campaign is under threat from Lewandowski, who is on pace for 49.

Lewandowski’s emergence as Bayern’s key goalscorer comes in the same year that he was benched for a crucial Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk in a game in which Pep Guardiola preferred Thomas Muller to lead the line.

Following the Pole’s benching against Schalke, it was the second time in a month that Guardiola had preferred a false-nine strategy involving the not-quite-center-forward Muller rotating up front with Mario Gotze and others. Not coincidentally, both matches ended in draws. Ross Dunbar of the Bundesliga Blog tweeted:

"

Lewandowski's improvement says a lot for his character. He looks leaner, faster and stronger than last season. Go easy on Scotland, eh?

— Ross Dunbar (@rossdunbar93) October 4, 2015"

Since then, Lewandowski has become a key figure in the ex-Barcelona coach’s plans, and it appears that Guardiola has even modified his tactics in ways that specifically accentuate his striker’s talents.

The fluid front three of having a rotating attacking line with no true center forward is no longer Bayern’s default.

Yes, Lewandowski drops back and drifts wide from time to time, but only in the context of being a striker. His mobility has been a reminder that even a 6-foot center forward can be agile, dynamic and tactically aware.

Yet, although he is, indeed, a rather mobile striker and works the channels, Lewandowski is the man to score the needed goals. More so than any Bayern man since Mario Gomez, in fact. His 16 for Bayern dwarfs even the impressive 10 Muller has scored from a position of support man.

And Douglas Costa, who has filled in brilliantly for Franck Ribery, is scoring at a rate that pales in comparison even to the veteran assist-king: The Brazilian has scored just twice in 12 games. Instead, he’s been focusing on delivering the final ball, which he’s done 11 times. On four occasions, he’s been the man to play the ball to Lewandowski for a goal.

By now, it appears the Bayern attack is set up to feed Lewandowski, with Muller as his backup. The fluidity is more in deeper areas, behind the established front man: Not far behind Costa are Muller, Gotze and Thiago Alcantara, who each have helped set up Lewandowski twice. Arturo Vidal and Jerome Boateng have both also assisted Lewandowski in one more instance. Cristian Nyari of Opta tweeted:

Beyond the apparent establishment of clearer roles within the Bayern team, Lewandowski has benefited from the team’s quickness in attacking. The 1.84-meter man was never the Gomez or Mario Mandzukic-type to score often from headers, to battle well-positioned center-backs and rise above them to nod the ball in. And surely enough, Lewandowski has only scored twice with his head (once for Bayern and once for Poland).

As with Muller, his poaching skill comes from finding space and making the right runs in fast-break scenarios.

Whether from a full-on counterattack or from situations in which his team faced a more set defense but moved the ball quickly from deeper than the attacking third to Lewandowski for the goal, the striker has scored 13 times. Rather than his head, he very often uses his impeccable volleying technique to steer the ball into the goal from crosses. The Bundesliga Blog tweeted:

Many prolific scorers have their goal tallies padded by penalties or easy add-on goals, but Lewandowski hasn’t yet scored from the spot this season and actually has proven to be a key goal-getter for both club and country.

Nine of his goals (five for Bayern, four for Poland) have come from non-winning positions, and he recently scored a last-gasp winner against Hoffenheim before netting a 94th-minute equalizer for his country against Scotland.

Curiously, Lewandowski has been far more a man to score after the break than before. Even though the numbers are slightly skewed by the outlier that is his second-half blitz of Wolfsburg for five goals, the fact remains that he’s hit the target just eight times in the first half compared to 14 times after the break. This suggests his fitness is just a bit sharper than his opponents, that he can be patient and strike when weary defenders break their concentration.

Right now, Lewandowski is on pace for one of the all-time best seasons a classic center forward has ever had.

He’s emerged as a leader, a go-to man for club and country when the going is difficult. And by the numbers, none can compare at the moment.

Seasons are much longer than two-and-a-half months, though, and even bigger games are yet to come for Lewandowski, Bayern and Poland. If he keeps up his form, though, nothing can stand in his way.

@Mr_Bundesliga