Got another brace today. Barcelona are on fire this season. Flick has instantly transformed the entire team.
Robert Lewandowski | Barcelona
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
36 and still banging them in. Is he the best 9 of the modern era? Maybe even all time?
It’s between him Benzema and Suarez. And I’ll have Lewy from those three
The likes of Ruud, Shevchenko, Raul, Eto'o all hover around the 400 career goals mark
Benzema 495 Suarez 580
Lewandowski is approaching 700 with seemingly a lot more left in the tank. Crazy numbers
Benzema 495 Suarez 580
Lewandowski is approaching 700 with seemingly a lot more left in the tank. Crazy numbers
Love this revival for him. Flick ball is made for him and vice versa.
Definitely one of the very best of all time. He has all the numbers in his favour.
Career goals
Trophies
Individual accolades
Champions League numbers
Main man at 3 of the biggest clubs in the world
Longevity
Consistency
International goals
Records
Great Peak
Knockout stage G/A stats
And at 36, he's still going strong.
It'll never not be Marco Van Basten for me as best no.9
To retire at 28 and still be in the conversation as greatest ever no.9 is something else. If Van Basten was playing in the modern game, with his skillset, he'd be brutalising teams.
To retire at 28 and still be in the conversation as greatest ever no.9 is something else. If Van Basten was playing in the modern game, with his skillset, he'd be brutalising teams.
Honestly, it’s insane that he retired at the age of twenty-eight. Only three years older than I am.
Literally lost a piece of his heel. At the time the question was whether he'd even be able to walk again without crutches
He was ass last season. Flick has gotten a lot more change out of him.
37 next summer, so this will probably be his last season there.
37 next summer, so this will probably be his last season there.
It’s really a pleasure to watch how they work together. Flick has been such a blessing for Barcelona, I can only dream about him at United
Club management seems to suit him better.
The Germany job was a disaster.
He's barely spent any money at Barça, yet has them cooking. La Masia has produced a lot of 1st team players, which has been a blessing during their financial crisis.
To say I'm ecstatic would be an understatement. The Germany national team debacle made everyone forget about how high his stock was, back when he had Bayern battering everyone. I guess he's still got it.....
I think he’s still comfortably behind the big three (Ronaldo, van Basten & Müller). He simply doesn’t have the talent of the former two and it’s pretty much impossible to be more efficient (at the highest stage) than the latter.
As for the modern times? It’s between him, Suarez & Benzema. They are better all-rounders but Lewandowski is the most goal-hungry out of the three, so it depends on what type of a striker you do prefer. I have to say, it’s pretty interesting that both him & Kane (Lewandowski even more so) had followed a non-typical career trajectory. He signed for Borussia as a squad player at the age of 22 (Luis Ronaldo was already the best player in the world at 20-21) and only really secured his place in the team a season later after Barrios got injured… but his consistent improvement since then is nothing short of incredible.
Whisper it softly, but he's approaching 700 career goals. Benz and Suarez are probably more rounded players, but if you want goals, you want Lewandowski. Close to 100 in the CL as well, and Suarez is stuck on some pathetic number in the 20s, IIRC.
What the actual feck. I did not know that whatsoever. That’s crazy.
Wow the Suarez CL numbers are very surprising. I still think Suarez was the better player at their respective peaks though particularly his last Liverpool season into the first Barca seasons
It's poetic since it was Flick that really took him to the next level at Bayern as well. Before 2019/20 even Bayern fans were criticizing him for his lack of performances in the bigger UCL games and his attitude itself stinked. I remember there were heavy rumours of him leaving Bayern for Madrid in the summer of 2019 but Madrid didn't bid for him, maybe also considering how he didn't effect the semi final against them the season before.
After that summer something clicked for him and he became outright the best striker on the planet while before he was on the cusp.
His CL numbers are shockingly poor, not just the goal total but also his goal ratio. It's an odd anomaly for him, because he's been prolific in every other scenario.
At this point Barca is running on Lewa Petrol. Absolutely fantastic player. Its mindfrack that some of the cules wanted him gone. Shows perfectly show much of a shit coach Xavi was.
Lewa is the focal point of a thriving attack, but Yamal and Raphinha also in world beater form. Especially the latter seems to have been resurrected by Hansi's license to attack.
Yamal is class and we know it, there also seems to be a great link between him and Lewy, but I think Raphinia deserves more respect. He was never the most talented or the most hyped guy but always leaves 110% on the pitch and loves the club so much. Great asset to have and he’s been in brilliant form under Flickx
Really happy for him. It also shows how Xavi fecked up last year in integrating him into the team.
The Lewandowski-Raphinha-Yamal trio is one of the most balanced attacks I have seen recently.
This attack has a bit of everything. Lewandowski is the experienced veteran. Raphinha playing his best football in his prime years. Yamal is the wonderkid with lots of flair.
Yamal sticks to the right flank, Raphinha shows up everywhere with complete positional freedom and Lewandowski can just do his thing and time his movements perfectly.
It is comfortably the best front 3 in Europe this season.
Masterclass in how to set up an attack by Flick.
I mean it's just not true. Last year he was just trash until ~January. It's not like he wasn't getting this quality of chances or anything. He was just fecking up on his own
Yep they’ve been really good to watch. it does help having Pedri behind them who’s also back to his best this season. Theyre a bit sus at the back but if they manage to get Araujo back for el clasico, I see them as the favourites against Madrid
Barcelona under Xavi didn't create high quality chances very often. Lewandowski spent the entire season in frustration because all his runs and movements were being ignored in favour of easy sideways passes and meaningless possession. He was getting into great positions all season.
Xavi's style of play was extremely static and there were no patterns of play in the attacking phase.
The statistics back it up. Last season, Lewandowski outperformed his xG. He was just being scapegoated by the top culers in order to protect their boy Xavi and his cluelessness as a manager.
After 9 games, they have pretty much the same xG as last season. They were in fact creating a ton high quality chances. They were missing a lot of them. Though it is true fewer of those fell to Lewy(but still quite a few)
Agree he was being scapegoated a bit as he was far from the greatest culprit for their underachievement in front of goal. But he 100% was a problem. Check understats - he's underperformed his xG until the end of April...
Becomes the 3rd highest goalscorer ever in the top 5 European leagues. 7 goals in his last 3 games for Barcelona. 
12 goals and 2 assists in 10 matches this season.
Top 3 striker in the world at the moment.
Top 3 striker in the world at the moment.
Jesus fecking Christ. What a player.
I really thought he was finished at the top level last year. As im sure many did. Impressive to turn it around like that. Barça wouldnt be in the position where they are if he hadnt.
Lewandowski vs Kane next up
Becomes the 3rd highest goalscorer ever in the top 5 European leagues. 7 goals in his last 3 games for Barcelona.
That's incredible
Haaland is surely a legitimate threat to break Messi's record, though.
According to Wikipedia, he now has 699 goals. Who knows if that's accurate, but it must be in the ballpark, and that's pretty impressive.The likes of Ruud, Shevchenko, Raul, Eto'o all hover around the 400 career goals mark
Benzema 495 Suarez 580
Lewandowski is approaching 700 with seemingly a lot more left in the tank. Crazy numbers
Still feel for him being robbed of his ballon d’or
That's incredible
Haaland is surely a legitimate threat to break Messi's record, though.
Not really. Haaland is 24 and is only on 135. That means he needs 364 league goals. I don't think he is going to be a player that plays on much after 30 so to beat Messis record he'd need to score 45-50 goals a season (league only) to do it. He would do well to beat the record that Lewa has and I'd be surprised if he does.
Anyway, it feels sad that this man was robbed of the big individual trophy.
Absolutely. And was always gutted we never went for him. Fantastic player.
The likes of Ruud, Shevchenko, Raul, Eto'o all hover around the 400 career goals mark
Benzema 495 Suarez 580
Lewandowski is approaching 700 with seemingly a lot more left in the tank. Crazy numbers
I'm not saying Ruud is a better player than Lewa but the amount of goals he'd score in the game nowadays would be insane. I think he'd be on similar stats to Haaland.
You can't use modern stats against the players from 20+ years ago because they were playing a man's game when defenders could actually defend.
Why not? Strikers now continue well into their 30s compared to 20 years ago when a lot of them were finished physically at that age. I don't see why Haaland wouldn't be one of them and it's not like he's a workhorse or picking up lots of injuries