Making a thread as it'll most likely get lost in the deluge in the megathread.
Good interview and insight into the player:
Good interview and insight into the player:
Lewandowski interview 50min+
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
His Fergie impression was hilarious.
Wish we signed him. What a player
He would have been a monster under Fergie
Brilliant interview, that.
Lewandowski comes across as a classy, humble guy. Not the impression I had of him.
Lewandowski comes across as a classy, humble guy. Not the impression I had of him.
It probably worked out better for United that we signed RvP and not him.
RvP in 12/13 was a better player, and he would've gone to City if not United. He goes to City, would we still win the title that year? Our trophy count the following 5 years realistically doesn't change given the managers we had...
RvP in 12/13 was a better player, and he would've gone to City if not United. He goes to City, would we still win the title that year? Our trophy count the following 5 years realistically doesn't change given the managers we had...
Still remember how he destroyed Real Madrid. One of the best strikers of all time without a doubt.
Imagine what could’ve been if BVB let him go in 2012
For all the hate Rio gets he sure does have a lot of respect from ex players and current players. He consistently delivers good interviews with top players and keeps it strictly football for the most part without any drama.
Was good to get an insight into Lewandowski. Hearing him speak it’s absolutely clear why he’s been at the top for so long and continues to find ways to improve.
Was good to get an insight into Lewandowski. Hearing him speak it’s absolutely clear why he’s been at the top for so long and continues to find ways to improve.
Yeah I really like listening to him. He oozes authority and has the same leader aura as on the pitch
Guy saying he prepared for his career deep into his 30's in his early 20's! That's really impressive.
Just out of curiosity, what was your impression of him before and why?
I recall a few German posters saying he was arrogant and aloof many years ago, so I was expecting something like that, but he was the total opposite.
Don’t know if he has changed over the years? But I found him engrossing, vulnerable and very open as well as affable, which is nice to see in someone so high up the totem.
He's very arrogant and demanding on the pitch. Constantly pointing at teammates and expressing frustration when someone misses a pass. Very aloof with the fans and extremely professional.
Outside Football, he's very intelligent, level headed and calm.
He married his wife June 2013 and she became a nutritionist September 2013. It was a plan all along...
I still remember the Polish national coach saying that Lewa was coming to us. I thought it was nailed on.
Quality interview but I feel I still didn't get my point across, so I'm giving it another attempt
If you played football yourself, especially in an attacking oriented position, maybe you can relate to this situation: You're playing a match but your team isn't really having its best day, the distances between players and the movement without the ball aren't there, so you are constantly fed with poor passes, find yourself in duels or chasing second balls all the time and when you are lucky enough to get a controllable pass into the feet, you often end up surrounded by opponents with no easy option to pass to. Basically, most of the time you get on the ball the situation requires a very good play by you just to retain possession. And by chance alone, you maybe get into two or three threatening situations over the course of 90 minutes at best. In such a chaotic environment, you still have many opportunities to showcase your skill and individual class but even if you do, it rarely leads to something countable because you're stuck in the no man's land of the pitch.
Guardiola on the other hand standardizes the build up. Everybody knows how he should position himself and where to move in which situation. That leads to less situations in which you can improvise (and thus showcase your skill) during the build up but on the other hand, you are not only getting into two or three promising situations but they go up by the factor three or four.
I think the best real life example for this is Messi. Under Guardiola, Barca was constantly getting him on the ball around the penalty box and thus he played his 90+ goal calendar year. After they parted ways, Messi gradually dropped deeper and deeper because he took matters in his own hands when he couldn't rely on his team progressing the ball to him any more. His moments of brillance still happened but farther away from goal and overall in less frequency and with less attention because he was provided with less opportunities for high profile plays.
IMO it is no coincidence that a whole bunch of players played their best (individual) football in their careers under Guardiola. His system is a highly optimized assembly line for situations you love as an individually brillant player.
I see... and I think I understand where this is coming from. Lewandowski always was very professional, which means that he also always treated football as his job (which he was and is very dedicated to) and less as an emotional thing. Which has it's ups and downs - I do think he was never really loved in Dortmund, but only highly respected. But he also never broke their fans hearts as he always kept his distance (unlike someone like Götze for example). I do believe he "softened" that stance a bit in recent years, but I think the sentiment you mention comes down to this: In a world that's build on fans emotions he is just doing a job and doesn't want to get involved too much with the emotional stuff.
The same is true for Bayern.
Fecking BVB screwing us again so they can lose him to daddy Bayern.
Would’ve been a behemoth signing under Fergie.
Would’ve been a behemoth signing under Fergie.
Yes. But who cares for the emotional state of Bayern fans? You guys are winning enough, I never take any emotional complaint you guys have seriously (please see this as a compliment for your club).
Understandable. Though we are experts in losing CL finals. Granted, the pain and impact isn’t the same as getting relegated for example. But it definitely is a suffering as well.
You'll certainly get moments within the system, set up for attackers to do their thing in their section of the pitch, but the overall freedoms are absent and it can curtail certain types of player.Quality interview but I feel I still didn't get my point across, so I'm giving it another attempt
If you played football yourself, especially in an attacking oriented position, maybe you can relate to this situation: You're playing a match but your team isn't really having its best day, the distances between players and the movement without the ball aren't there, so you are constantly fed with poor passes, find yourself in duels or chasing second balls all the time and when you are lucky enough to get a controllable pass into the feet, you often end up surrounded by opponents with no easy option to pass to. Basically, most of the time you get on the ball the situation requires a very good play by you just to retain possession. And by chance alone, you maybe get into two or three threatening situations over the course of 90 minutes at best. In such a chaotic environment, you still have many opportunities to showcase your skill and individual class but even if you do, it rarely leads to something countable because you're stuck in the no man's land of the pitch.
Guardiola on the other hand standardizes the build up. Everybody knows how he should position himself and where to move in which situation. That leads to less situations in which you can improvise (and thus showcase your skill) during the build up but on the other hand, you are not only getting into two or three promising situations but they go up by the factor three or four.
I think the best real life example for this is Messi. Under Guardiola, Barca was constantly getting him on the ball around the penalty box and thus he played his 90+ goal calendar year. After they parted ways, Messi gradually dropped deeper and deeper because he took matters in his own hands when he couldn't rely on his team progressing the ball to him any more. His moments of brillance still happened but farther away from goal and overall in less frequency and with less attention because he was provided with less opportunities for high profile plays.
IMO it is no coincidence that a whole bunch of players played their best (individual) football in their careers under Guardiola. His system is a highly optimized assembly line for situations you love as an individually brillant player.
To be clear, I've never been against the system, but I do not believe it to be an evolution rather than another way of playing that benefits the collective, but hinders truer individualists, or, another way to say, has them "come alive" in key phases.
Taken to their zenith, the battle between a great side on either side of this divide would be epic, in my opinion.
He married his wife June 2013 and she became a nutritionist September 2013. It was a plan all along...
Thanks for the breakdown of the person he has projected outwardly. Interesting insight. I will say the interview surprised me in many ways. I wasn't expecting him to be so intelligent, besides the affability.
For one year...
He was never a fan darling in his Dortmund or Bayern days. He always seemed a bit reserved i'd say.
Hmm RVP was better, but not by a huge gap I don't think. 12/13 was Lewa's first real monster year (47 G/A in all comps). Let's assume the drop off isn't as drastic and we still win the title that year, so we then have:
13/14- Doesn't make a difference we were fecked under Moyes
14/15- Him instead of Rooney/RVP up top probably makes a solid difference. Most likely we get 3rd I'd say
15/16- This is the season that might have changed things. Prime Lewa instead of a washed Rooney with Martial creating would have gotten us 3rd at a minimum that year if not higher, but in doing so we probably keep LVG.
16/17- So the question becomes if LVG stays do we actually win less trophies? Pogba and Ibra wouldn't have come, nor would Mourinho, so in reality the best bet is we actually win less in the end by signing one of the best strikers of his generation. We would have been in CL again but we weren't winning it. Maybe we win another domestic cup but that's it.
He was a monster anyway even without Fergie. But yeah I agree with what you said, he’s one of those players that’s never played for United but absolutely looks 100% like a Manchester United player.
Yeah it's basically hard to have any real FOMO over any player the past 10 years cause I genuinely think they wouldn't have made much of a difference to us in the grand scheme of things. All about the managers and general structure behind them. Hopefully will improve from here.