After the World Cup another has returned Lewandowski. Equally committed to Barça, but without the usual aim, lowering his success rate (7 goals in the last 15 games), leading Xavi to send the same message (“we have to look for Robert more in the area, we have to look for him more “) in the last week. And with more urgency after the defeat at Old Trafford, where Barça competed, but lost.
The project leader
It is as if Barça had disconnected from the ‘nine’, the capital piece in its offensive structure. The leader of “a medium and long-term project”, as Xavi recalled yesterday, so that Lewandowski is aware (and he is) where he has come from just now that February has not ended and has suffered two European falls (Champions and Europe League), which keep you away from the big shop windows.
And, above all, so that Lewandowski knows what he has come for. Almería appears today as a new opportunity for the team and the scorer to synchronize, once again, their frequencies after weeks of strange solitude and unusual disconnection.
More participation, less auction
It seems that both parties work on different waves, no matter how much the coach insists that it is not a problem of the player but of the collective. He is still there, but the balls do not reach him as before, perhaps conditioned by that formula of the four midfielders that has left him without any more support in attack. His case is curious. The Pole intervenes more in the game, but he shoots less.
“We are missing that feeling from the last pass and Robert is the one who needs it the most. We must look for him more”
Xavi, coach of Barça
“He participates more, he comes to receive, he associates more, he comes a lot to download…”, pointed out Xavi, who, immediately, and after having to answer about the drop in performance of the ‘nine’ to four questions out of the 22 that received, drew the plan that is needed. A very specific plan.
“We must look for it more in the area,” insisted the coach, appealing to the search for solutions after the defeat against United so that this disconnection does not last for more games. “We are missing that feeling from the last pass and Robert is the one who needs it the most,” admitted Xavi, assuming the football longing that his leader feels. “He is the one who misses him the most. That last pass, that center… We must look for him more,” he added, determined to find that first version of the player as soon as possible. Lewandowski.
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The total numbers are resounding: 30 games, 25 goals, which also implies a payment of 1.25 million euros from Barça to Bayern as stated in one of the variables signed in the contract last summer. But the problem appears when lately the Pole has been seen more times away from the area than inside.
His numbers are indisputable: 25 goals in 30 games. But his performance has decreased after the World Cup
And that is indeed harmful for the offensive structure of the team, which needs to win this League to forget the European wounds. “If the League and the Cup are won, it would be a good, very good season because, in addition, we already have the Super Cup in our pocket,” Xavi stressed after urging Barça to carry out an immediate “change of chip” in Almería. A change that Stop by to see the original version of Lewandowski, who only has two companions (Ferran and Raphinha) in perfect physical condition after Ansu Fati’s injury, although Xavi hopes to have him on Thursday in the classic cupbearer.