His link-up play looked great at times, his finishing looks a bit off. Overall it hasn't really clicked yet, but it's not surprising when you constantly have to change the formation and tactics, because of a crazy number of injuries.
He looked scarily good in pre-season.
So did Darren Fletcher though.......
no. there are some factors why bayern arent firing at all cylinders. so lewa is not firing on all cylinders. press try to make a non-issue into an issue. bayern and lewa will be fine imo
lewa overall play is amazing. you see how muller almost scored within first minute from his link up play? my my my
Oh okay cool, yeah I saw a few reports and just wondered, haven't caught any European football outside of Premier League this season.
The Sky Sports guys kept mentioning that. I dont think so. 3 scorers in his first 3 Bundesliga games, good yesterday. All fine.
Its still a new team and with so many channges in the last weeks due to injury he would find it hard sometimes.
But he has another gear. Thats for sure. Only Ronaldo has more CL goals in the last 30 games or so. The fun just started.
Are we judging him on 3 games in the BL and 1 in the CL ? Judge him on a season, an outstanding player will always show his class over that time period.
This, he will come good.. He is class.
This, especially considering he will have Ribery and Robben supplying him.
They made Gomez (decent striker that he is) look world class!
And most of all, Ashley Young! Pre seasons are nothing to go by.
It doesn't bear thinking about that Anderson might have had a decent pre-season does it?
I think Gomez wasn't that much better at Bayern where he had a world class supporting cast than he was in Stuttgart after his breakout season in 06/07 until his last season there in 08/09.
Stuttgart: games| goals+assists| minutes per goal or assist
League: 82| 75| 89
EL/CL: 14| 12| 102
DFB-cup: 10| 12| 68
Bayern: games| goals+assists| minutes per goal or assist
League: 115| 90| 86
CL: 41| 31| 78
DFB-cup: 18| 18| 62
You can see that his numbers apart from Europe didn't really improve despite the fact that a player aged between 24-27 who plays for a better team should put up better numbers than aged 21 to 23.
And that's only to show that his numbers didn't really improve.
Overall I'd say that a lot of people who watched the Bundesliga back then already thought he was worse because he was rendered a goalscorer-only at Bayern. Sure, he scored less goals at Stuttgart but he had more assists and actually contributed to their game instead of being a poacher who adds nothing to the team apart from goals.
If anything I'd say it's a lot harder to look amazing as a striker when you have 2 or 3 players behind you who have the ball a lot and are very influential on the pitch and also put up amazing numbers.
Another example which shows the other extreme at a top club is Benzema. While Gomez was limited to being a goalscorer only and was criticised for it, Benzema was often criticised for not scoring enough and only being great with his link up play. Despite the fact that he also put up very good numbers in goals+assists!
Yep, nothing wrong with what you said. The role a player performs does vary from team to team and little variables do as well - maybe at age 21-23, defenders didn't pay Gomez much attention/respect, so he had more time/space etc.
All of a sudden, you're at Bayern, and you're in the spotlight. Though he still posted amazing numbers at Bayern. He had world class service providers behind him
But yeah, as long as the team you play for does really well, and you're contributing exactly what was asked/expected of you - whether it's goals or just linking the other attackers into the game.
Another example is Mandzukic, while not scoring as many as Gomez Bayern looked far better with him up top. Reason being players like him and Benzema are able to bring the wide players into the game a lot more effectively and thus the team looks better. It usually hits their scoring numbers but improves the team.
Gomez always was a scoring machine when you supply him right.
But you miss something here. The striker at Bayern got some assists from Ribery - but a lot from all the others on the pitch, too. Some just should look on the type of the wingers - Ribery is more a typical one whereas Robben is more a striker than a supporter. And even if Robben assisted more in 2013/14 than he did it before he mainly did it for Müller and Ribery, not for Mandzukic.
The assist numbers since 2009/10 at Bayern (all competitions):
Ribery 97, Müller 86, Robben 62, Lahm 48, Kroos 40, Schweinsteiger 33
Maybe interesting - that is not from the end of the season but somewhen short before (at the end M&M both had 26 goals, Pizza 11) - who assisted whom last season:
Mandzukic had 11 different suppliers, Müller 13.
Robben assisted more than he did before - but from his 14 assists 5 went to Müller and 4 to Ribery...
That's quite a cool table. Thanks for the info BW.
Yeah, I didn't mean literally - only Ribery and Robben would assist Lewa. More figuratively that when your injured players are back, the quality of his supply will also increase etc. I was actually just responding to someone who mentioned Lewa didn't have a good start to his Bayern career - but it's been what, 4 games I think? With a ton of quality players injured as well.
True. I don't know why I didn't think of Mandzukic myself.
Benzema and Mandzukic are quite different in their skill set but they are both able to bring their teammates into play and also work really hard if they have to.
Lewa's first goal today
He has been outstanding in recent weeks. Not only did he score some crucial goals, his overall play is excellent. His hold-up play and movement is fantastic and since Ribery and Robben are both injured, he showed great understanding with Müller. Both link up incredibly well together as a strike partnership and carry our attack in this crazy injury crisis.
He has been outstanding in recent weeks. Not only did he score some crucial goals, his overall play is excellent. His hold-up play and movement is fantastic and since Ribery and Robben are both injured, he showed great understanding with Müller. Both link up incredibly well together as a strike partnership and carry our attack in this crazy injury crisis.
Both goals were offside to be honest.
What helps is no Robben and Ribbery around.
I find it very weird that he isn't top BL top scorer or even Bayern's top scorer considering he is playing for team that is scoring so much, and that most of his teammates are having inconsistent season because of injuries.
On his day he's the best #9 around, for me. I absolutely loved watching him play for Dortmund when they had Sahin, Kagawa, Goetze and Lewa all at their peaks at the club
Would be brilliant for us!
What's up with all the injuries? Bayern have quite a good medical team behind them as well so unusual that you have picked up so many injuries.
Robben has been fine since 2013 - but ruptured a muscle in his stomach falling down after a foul 2 weeks ago. He will probably be back starting May.
Schweinsteiger has continuous ankle problems - but he would be fine if not every opponent would try to kick him exactly there in every match. Kuba kicked him good in the match against Dortmund - usually that would maybe have meant a match or two rest but he has the flu, too.
It is something similar with Ribery. Got kicked on his ankle in a match and was thought to be out just for a match or two - but started too early so it was a longer rest now. He is back running but did not start team training again. There is slight hopes that he might make the bench on Wednesday and do some minutes - but not more.
Badstuber - with him they are very careful. He had muscle problems in the break of the friendly against Australia. So they put him out of the normal training for some days and are very careful again - especially cause of the injuries of the other defenders. Only Dante is fully fit.
Boateng has some muscle problems for some weeks now. Nothing serious - he just would need more rests so nothing happens. They subbed him out short before the end of the 120 minutes against Leverkusen and rested him out of precaution today. He will be fine Wednesday - no injury.
Martinez had an ACL and multiple knee injuries in September. He probably will not make it anymore this season even if they might sub him in for 5 minutes in the last match just to let him "feel the pitch".
Benatia - tore a muscle and is out the rest of April.
Pizarro - had a muscle injury and we thought he was over it - but seems to still have problems.
Alaba - tore something in his knee in the friendly against Bosnia and is out until end of May.
Starke - the third keeper - tore a muscle in training.
About Lewa...
How to deal with Kompany...
A centre forward, a real #9, has always had problems at Bayern, historically. Since Gerd Muller, the most unbelievable in-the-box-scorer in history, no one has ever shined in that position at Bayern. The reason is simply that all opponents sit very deep or even park the bus against Bayern. Hence, the box is always full of defenders whenever Bayern gets close to the goal.
Having said that , Robert Lewandowski is close to that Gerd-Muller-style. Because he has not only technical skills but he has a couple of moves that are really Gerd-Muller’esque. The way he can make space with his lower body, the way he can shelter the ball, the focussing on the goal, all that gets him close. He is already and will be even more in the future a huge success story at Bayern.
The reason why he is shining at this very moment is rather simple: When Bayern plays with Robben and Ribery, then the focus is on breaking down a defence with one-on-one’s created by these two, on either flank. The problem for Lewi is, that especially Robben breaks it down in order to score himself.
For Lewi the good news from these weeks without Ribery and Robben is that the other Bayern players have now seen themselves what a great player he is. Kind of a proof of his quality. I think he will get much more involved from now on, even when Rib and Rob are back.
It's just weird. It's not a specific type of injury, so that you could blame the training or something and find a solution. And it's not only the injury prone or old players, but young players with not many injuries before as well. It's really, really annoying.
Everyone's body is different and reacts in a different way. Just because the injuries they are picking up are different doesn't mean the cause isn't the same.
Look at us earlier in the season, all sorts of injuries but Van Gaal claimed responsibility and now feels the players have adjusted to his methods.
Wasn't the problem at United that you consistently had small muscle injuries that kept players out for a relatively short term? I don't think that's comparable with serious ankle and knee injuries through unlucky events in games for example. Guardiola's squad at Barca had few of these injuries (the exception maybe 11/12). He could basically play at least 9 out of his prefered 11 starters in every game for 3 years running. It's the exact opposite with us and it's difficult to argue that bad luck doesn't play a huge role in this. I doubt he made signficant changes to his training which causes all that.
Nah we had everything. Knee injuries, ankle injuries, ribs, hip, groin, pelvis, shin yada yada.
Maybe the one person he is missing on his medical team is the one who made all the difference - Fuentes.
Jokes aside, perhaps Barca's fitness levels were naturally higher while Peps methods have brought fatigue on gradually which has resulted in more injuries.
Heavy legs can result in impact injuries as the players react fractions of a second later and don't get out the way of poor challenges. Or a more physical Bundesliga?
Maybe they all ate too much during the long winterbreak and the break actually hurts us instead of helping us. Who knows? The 7 days off in Spain are certainly a lot different to the 4 week break in Germany and we've looked signficantly worse after the winterbreak in both seasons under Guardiola.
Still, you can't really argue that fatigue plays such a major role, many of the injured players didn't even play that much and weren't rushed back either. It's all just very weird.
The rise of more knee injuries is a Bundesliga wide topic. It has to do with the faster turns and the extreme pressing style in the league.
Ribery and Schweinsteiger's injury are permanent personnel problems who aren't helped by recent refereeing and letting opponents foul without interfering when it is a Bayern player.
Robben just was unlucky.
Benatia might have problems to adjust to the demands.
Badstuber's problems are normal for his situation. He was out two years.
Ribery and Schweinsteiger's injury are permanent personnel problems who aren't helped by recent refereeing and letting opponents foul without interfering when it is a Bayern player.
Robben just was unlucky.
Benatia might have problems to adjust to the demands.
Badstuber's problems are normal for his situation. He was out two years.
Wow quite a range of different problems! Has Javi Martinez played any games yet? And where do you see his future? In midfield or attack?
Sometimes you can just have bad luck, I mean look at us. We've had it for almost 10 years now
How can Lewandowski be offside for the second one, if he stood behind the ball?
We should ask the guy from Frankfurt Sky interviewed during halftime. His explanation why Müller's goal was rightly disallowed was spectatular.
Best striker in the world. Since 2013. End of story.
Suarez?
Great pick. But I take Lewa overall.
Top top pro where Suarez has his issues.
And a proven winner.