Between Barcelona's bet and Bayern Munich's insult, does Lewandowski deserve it?

We thought a lot and then decided to maintain the usual journalistic traditions in such situations;

We will start with historical wisdom attributed to Mark Twain because we did not find a more appropriate one to express the situation, and the wisdom says that reality is often stranger than fiction.

Heard it before?

Well, we've all heard it before, but the fact that its second part is what gives it a philosophical dimension that throws you into the abyss of existential questions.

The legendary American writer believes that reality is often stranger than fiction, because even fiction must contain some realism.

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Let's try to explain it;

Twain believed that all fiction is based on reality.

Every fantasy is an inflated, exaggerated, or reconfigured reality, but it is a reality in its essence, loaded with its legacy, its possibilities, and its law. As for reality itself, it is not restricted by the same laws and rules, and is formed as a result of human interactions that are difficult to imagine or planning, and therefore, if the imagination is based on reality, then Reality sometimes has no reference, sometimes it produces unprecedented scenarios that reality itself has not witnessed before, and this is what makes it stranger than fiction.

The dinosaur in the room

Didn't you understand what he meant?

It's okay, there are not many who understand Mark Twain's sayings anyway, and there are more who think that the man was obsessed with prudence and cleverness, but what he reminded us is that the present situation could not have been better expressed by Twain;

Robert Lewandowski, the man who left Borussia Dortmund 9 years ago, for Bayern Munich, the richest and most powerful club, who defeated his team in the Champions League final, and his absence from the match was one of the reasons for this defeat, now finds himself in the same position, and decides to leave the company that convinced him for 8 Years that he is her loyal son, nothing but that he no longer feels that they respect him, and of course the scene is complete when the reason for his feeling is that they seek to replace him with a newer model of scoring machines, especially from Dortmund as well.

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Robert Lewandowski is REALLY not happy with the treatment he's had at Bayern Munich 😳 pic.twitter.com/9GGuEdYUKN

— GOAL (@goal) June 7, 2022

Mark Twain would have easily extracted 39 ironic paradoxes from this scene, and he would have laughed a lot because the scene does not end here, but begins, and the Polish point of view is only one angle of the situation, Bayern Munich is experiencing another irony in turn, because his attempt to replace Lewandowski with the latest model -from The club itself - unsuccessful, and this set off a series of hilarious official and public interactions, starting with accusing the Polish agent of being a "greedy piranha", then accusing Lewandowski himself of chasing after money, and finally, and most comedic of all, trying to force him to stay for the remaining season in Knot.

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This time, of course, is different from what happened 9 years ago.

At the time, Bayern also asked Lewandowski to stay until the end of his contract, but for different reasons that included getting him for free without any benefit to Dortmund, the club that made his name and turned him from an ordinary player to a star, but now Bayern Munich asked because they do not have any other realistic option to replace him in market.

The paradoxes do not end here, and perhaps the biggest irony in all of the above is that Lewandowski is now presented to the German media as the player who sold the club that made his name for money.

Wait, wasn't this Dortmund?

Wasn't it Klopp who changed his position and moved him from the bench to the starting lineup and turned him from a clumsy striker with no history to one of the Bundesliga stars?

Wasn't Lewandowski already the top scorer in the league when he moved to Bayern Munich?

If Bavaria really made Lewandowski's name, what exactly happened at Festivalia?

Pep Guardiola has no doubts Robert Lewandowski would fit in at Barcelona 👌 pic.twitter.com/lMVG99o1r5

— GOAL (@goal) June 7, 2022

More important;

What money exactly are we talking about, and there is not a single creature on the surface of the planet who knows for sure whether Barcelona will actually be able to contract with him or not, but everyone is sure that the new contract - if it is done - will not include a higher salary.

This time Lewandowski does not leave his club for a bigger club and a higher salary, but rather leaves him for a club in the most difficult moments of its modern history, a club that was not sure of qualifying for the Champions League basically after three quarters of the season had passed, a club that Lewandowski participated in humiliating himself two years ago with an unprecedented eight historic times during 90 minutes.

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This is actually a reality stranger than fiction, and if this was a Chinese movie that told the story with the replacement of football with kung fu, it would still be difficult to believe as well, and perhaps only Mark Twain would have believed it, the only man who would not have ruled out this plot if someone presented it to him in 2014.

Lifan-Gol-Ski

A club in the most difficult moments in its modern history, a club that was not sure of qualifying for the Champions League basically after three quarters of the season had passed, a club that Lewandowski participated in humiliating himself two years ago with an unprecedented eight history in 90 minutes, and most importantly;

A club unable to provide Lewandowski with the same sweeping edge over their opponents at the moment, nor the same intensity of chances created.

🗣️ Javier Tebas: “To this day, Barcelona can NOT sign Lewandowski.”

pic.twitter.com/CcJr8AgC0n

— Barca Worldwide (@BarcaWorldwide) May 31, 2022

This is a point that does not underestimate the right of analysis in the current scene.

The fact that Lewandowski scores so many easy goals each season, perhaps not available to any other striker, is only comparable to what Kylian Mbappe gets at Paris Saint-Germain.

In September 2021, statistical analyst Mark Curry wrote in The Athletic about the consistency of Europe's top strikers, and in his analysis, the Pole has been at the top of the list since the 2017-2018 season in the average chances available to him per game, Measured on the "xG" criterion for the expected goals to be scored according to the ease of opportunity.

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On the list, Lewandowski outperformed the likes of Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Aguero and even Mbappe in terms of opportunities available, but he was also the least consistent from game to game, a point not shown by the usual scoring averages (Average), but by the graphs that collect match performance. series and can be compared to each other.

Of course, part of this number is due to Lewandowski's ability to move and read play, but it is one of the variables that can be removed from the equation, simply because the rest of the names on the list are not less than him in this regard, which may give us an indication that the Polish was the most spoiled striker in Europe during The past years, and a quick review of the scale and ease of chances Lewandowski has scored since his first season at Bayern Munich, 2014-2015, makes it clear.

Please note the number and density of large circles that represent opportunities for registration.

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The goals scored by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga in the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons (source Anderstat)

The goals scored by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons (source Anderstat)

The goals scored by Lewandowski in the Bundesliga in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons (source Anderstat)

Goals scored by Robert Lewandowski in the Bundesliga in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons (source Anderstat)

Of course you can easily notice that last season, 2020-2021, was his best scoring season ever in the league, not only because he broke Gerd Muller's record that has stood for almost half a century, by scoring 41 goals in a single Bundesliga season, but also because he broke that record. He required many difficult goals from low-quality opportunities, which amounted to more than a third of his total goals, in a precedent that the Polish career had not witnessed before.

The witness here is that scoring those goals is the exception, not the rule.

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In a previous interview after the end of this season, 2020-2021, German football journalist, Raphael Honigstein, told him that he was surprised by the number of goals he scored from outside the region, as his impression of him was that he was a box striker in the first place, and it is a completely correct impression, because even With this impression, the maximum number of distant goals the Pole could score in a season was 3, and it was only twice in his career;

The first was in the 2020-2021 season, in which he won the Golden Ball, and the second was in 2014-2015, his first season with the Bavaria giants.

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This is the correct logical context in which Lewandowski's scoring abilities should be placed;

The man relies mainly on Bayern's almost continuous technical and tactical superiority over his peers in the Bundesliga, does not create many goals, does not play many roles, and his ability to influence is linked to the differences in favor of his team in the match, and his history has not witnessed half of this glow in the Champions League matches.

Briefly;

Lewandowski is not the player who creates superiority over opponents, but rather the player who takes advantage of him.

I ate the day I ate

The question asked by many was about Lewandowski's inability to exploit this superiority in the same way in the past years, as it was logical to guarantee him the top scorer award almost every season, and the answer here lies in the way the Polish man dealt with his career after crossing the thirty-year barrier.

Lewandowski joins the list of players who have forced a transfer to Barça when they had a contract.

The most recent cases have been those of Dembélé and Coutinho, and further afield, those of Cesc, Mascherano, Eto'o, and the brothers Frank and Ronald De Boer.

[Sport] pic.twitter.com/zyCLyAxrSj

— The Football Index 🎙 ⚽ (@TheFootballInd) June 8, 2022

A very special diet in which his wife, the former karate champion, helped him, who advised him to eat sweets first before food because this helps his body burn fat at a greater rate, and a whole team concerned with analyzing his performance, and a special physical and mental counselor who helps him choose the sleeping positions that achieve the greatest recovery And rest, and rigorous and deliberate physical training to increase his previously lean muscle mass, the weak point that almost killed his professional career at the beginning.

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In fact, this is another irony in the story;

Bayern Munich is exposed to the loss of Lewandowski in the best years of his life, when his body integrated with his mind and his experiences matured to an unprecedented degree, and most importantly, he gained confidence in the ability to challenge historical legends with his recent achievements, after his doubts in himself prevented him from providing his best on big dates. .

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Does that make it worth Barcelona's frantic pursuit of him?

Is it worth risking the financial accounts, the depth of formation, and the need for support in other centers to provide for his salary and for his transfer?

Probably;

Barcelona needs a confident scorer who translates his control and supremacy in many matches, but he also needs a solid defender, a new leader, a creative wing, and at least one full-back, all of which are important additions that Xavi will not reach his goal without.

All this must be taken into account, under the umbrella of reasonable expectations about what Lewandowski can offer Barcelona;

Expectations that do not include superstitious goals, nor difficult individual solutions, nor even continuous regularity in performance throughout the season.

Contrary to what was prepared for you, Lewandowski was never a super striker, but a very good striker, distinguished by intelligence, humility and extreme professionalism.

These are all very important qualities, but they do not put him in the ranks of the greats of the past decade such as Aguero, Suarez and others.

It is this subtle element that distinguishes the great from the excellent that the Pole has been missing throughout his career, and even at his prime in recent years, he does not seem to have gained.

🎙 Robert Lewandowski: “Leo Messi is like a historic Ferrari.

You stand next to him and have a "wow" feeling.”

🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/Xgz6MM2h51

— Barca Worldwide (@BarcaWorldwide) June 6, 2022

Does that make him worthy of the current treatment from Bayern Munich?

English journalist Jonathan Wilson believes that this extreme professionalism is Lewandowski's current problem. Again, because this is what happened with Dortmund exactly 9 years ago in the last season of his contract.

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What we think is that whether or not Lewandowski deserves that treatment, whether it is unfair or not, and whether his claims of respect are true or not, there is absolutely no room for any moral or emotional overtones to be attached to the matter.

This is the same professionalism that Bayern Munich and Lewandowski himself accepted nine years ago, when they thought it appropriate to negotiate with a player before the most important match in the history of his current club against them, and at that time no voice was raised above the voice of professionalism.

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Bayern Munich did not make the name Lewandowski, but rather increased its luster. Barcelona, ​​the club that Lewandowski would like to join, it would have been wise for the Polish to realize that that moment was inevitable, and that Bayern’s quest to replace him in this way was only a matter of time, perhaps he would realize the lesson that many before him realized, which is that the consumed talk about tradition Family, respect for contracts, and fulfillment of vows are nothing but a desperate attempt at emotional blackmail, whether it comes from Oliver Kahn and Salihamidzic, or comes off the throats of enthusiastic fans, or even comes from his own mouth.

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