As it happens, it’s a double video analysis session for Robert Lewandowski on the day he sits down with The Athletic: one with us, one with his boss Julian Nagelsmann immediately after.
Nagelsmann, Bayern Munich’s new head coach, is known for an obsession with tactical nuances but even he will surely find it difficult to uncover too many flaws in the 32-year-old striker’s game. Lewandowski is coming off his best-ever season, scoring 41 goals to better the 49-year-old Bundesliga record set by Gerd Muller, who sadly passed away a few days after our interview.
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The Poland captain’s five goals in six games in the Champions League had also put Bayern on course to retain the European Cup before fate cruelly intervened in the shape of an Andorran defender’s backside. Lewandowski was injured when Albert Alavedra fell on him in a World Cup qualifier in March and could only watch as Bayern missed chance after chance over two legs in a quarter-final loss, on away goals, to Paris Saint-Germain.
Having missed out on a certain Ballon d’Or due to France Football’s decision not to award the trophy at all in 2020, Lewandowski should be in the mix for winning the accolade this December instead.
It would be churlish to hold the lack of a big trophy last season against him, in light of his involuntary absence against PSG. No one’s as accomplished as Lewandowski in front of goal right now and no one’s been finding the net as reliably as he has been in the biggest leagues since the pandemic struck. And that’s what football’s all about, isn’t it?
Welcome to a session of “Self-Analyse This” with the game’s hottest hitman.
2-0 vs Arminia Bielefeld (A), October 2020 (final score 4-1)
(Unfortunately, due to TV rights restrictions, some subscribers will not be able to watch a small number of the videos below)
Rafa Honigstein: I’m interested in your movement here. As a forward, you’d usually be expected to make the run into the box. But you hold back.
Robert Lewandowski: When you’re in the middle of an attacking move, you need to take stock of all your surroundings. You think about all the things you can see with your eyes and all the things you can only see inside your head: Where’s the opponent? Where’s the pass? Where’s the space? Where’s the run? In this game, I had twice made a couple of deep runs in similar positions. Each time, the defender was switched on, tracked me, and cut off the angle for the pass. That’s why I checked back this time.
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Sometimes, not making a move is the best move, because it throws your opponent. Suddenly, he needs to make the first move. He might not be ready for that. That moment of hesitation is all you need. I saw that there was a gap, that the first post was open. It’s a decision you take in a split second. Then you show your quality. And if the situation isn’t right, you do something different.
Honigstein: Did you decide to shoot before your first touch?
Lewandowski: No. My first thought was to control the ball. It jumped up a bit, which helped me adjust my feet and take the shot. Controlling the ball with your first touch can make up 60 or 70 per cent of a goal — the right touch provides you with space and time. The better your touch, the more time you have to look up, see where the goalkeeper is and find the right finish.
Honigstein: When you started playing for Borussia Dortmund under Jurgen Klopp, you’d often play as a No 10. You’ve said that experience helped you hone the technical side of your game. But it seems to me as if your technique has kept improving. In your first Champions League season (2011-12), there were still moments when your touch let you down. That doesn’t happen anymore.
Lewandowski: Ten years is a lot of time in football to get better and work on your weaknesses. The way I see it, it doesn’t really matter if you’re good at something, you can always get better. Back in 2010, the potential was there. But you have to use that potential. You need to work on all aspects of your game, every single day in training. If you don’t work on those little details, you won’t get better. There is no player that’s 100 per cent perfect, no shot that’s technically 100 per cent right. It’s about getting to the point when you can do those things on the pitch automatically, when they become a part of you. Then the communication between your brain and your feet happens instantly, without the loss of data or a time lag. And then you find the right finish. But you need to repeat all those steps a thousand times each season in training. That’s the only way.
2-1 vs Stuttgart (A), November 2020 (final score 3-1)
Honigstein: Another shot from distance.
Lewandowski: I had options here. I saw that Kingsley Coman was coming in on the right. Playing him in would have created a good chance. But Thomas Muller’s clever run across had dragged two players with him, and suddenly there was a big gap ahead of me. I decided to take the shot. I remember I had felt we hadn’t taken enough shots from outside the box in that game, so I gave it a go. They didn’t expect it. That element of surprise was crucial. It’s a good example of why reading the game is so important. It had gone one way, with us trying get into the box all the time, but we needed something different and unexpected. One of the most important things you must do as a forward is to keep your opponents guessing. They don’t like it.
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Honigstein: Looking through hundreds of your goals in preparation for this interview, I was surprised how many times you have scored from outside the box in recent times. In my mind, you were more of a poacher. Has your game evolved or is it simply a case of more space being available further out, since Bayern’s opponents tend to cram the box?
Lewandowski: That’s a factor, definitely. I should be in the box, that’s where the most goals are being scored, That’s my position. Eighty per cent of the time, I will make the run. I don’t get many opportunities to shoot from distance. But if someone else makes those deep runs into the box, as Muller and Kingsley did here, I can remain in the second line and drop into the No 10 role. Before last season started, I thought that I have to try shooting from just outside the box more often. I know I can do it.
Honigstein: Certainly. And you’ll hit the ball “Vollspann” as we say in German — laces.
Lewandowski: Outside the box, you need the power. Inside the box, I mostly use the instep, for precision.
Honigstein: Muller’s run provides a valuable ‘assist’ without him touching the ball. Your understanding has almost become telepathic in the last couple of years. But it did feel as if it took a bit of time for the two of you to fully get to know each other’s game. Would that be fair?
Lewandowski: To me, it’s more of a question of the system we’re playing. In the past, Thomas often played on the right or left. In the last couple of seasons, he’s back in the centre, as a No 10 or sometimes a No 8. You relate differently to each other on the pitch if you’re two, three, 10 or 20 metres away from each other. His game changes, my game changes. That’s the main difference. He’s an incredibly intelligent player who reads the game extremely well, which is hugely important at this level. He’s got a great sense of what might happen — and where.
Honigstein: Talking about wing play, does it make a difference to you that Bayern’s wingers are mostly inverted, cutting in from the outside?
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Lewandowski: It changes the dynamic in attack but you simply have to learn how to read your team-mates and anticipate their movements. Some wingers are more interested in scoring themselves than others but that doesn’t mean you won’t get chances: if they shoot more often, there’ll be more loose balls off the goalkeeper or defenders that you can take advantage of. You just have to be one step ahead.
Honigstein: One centre-forward who was always one if not two steps ahead of everyone else was, of course, Gerd Muller, your iconic predecessor at Bayern. You finally managed to break his record last season. How do you feel about this achievement, three months later?
Lewandowski: I still don’t know how big this record is, I think. During the season, I’m totally in football mode, the focus is always on the next game. There isn’t really time to stop and take things in. You notice the praise and the fans being happy, it makes you very proud. It does mean a lot, for sure, to go one better than the best goalscorer Germany has ever seen. But it will take much more time to properly process. Maybe one day, I can say, ‘Wow, what have I done?’. Right now, it feels too early though. It could be that this feeling of having achieved something incredible will come when the season’s back underway and you’re back to zero goals, trying to do it all again. I know this much: it was a pretty amazing feat.
3-0 vs Eintracht Frankfurt (H), April 2015 (final score 3-0)
Honigstein: This one’s a bit of football ballet. Talk us through it.
Lewandowski: I remember precisely the vector of the shot and my distance to goal. I hit it very cleanly, top corner. The first touch, as I said, is so important. It gave me a big chance, on my right foot, at a good angle. I hadn’t scored many goals against Frankfurt until then, which is why this goal meant a lot to me. It was quite special.
Honigstein: The first touch puts it on a plate for you to smash it home. But it also conveniently takes out the defender…
Lewandowski: There’s one behind me and one in front of me. The only space to turn for the shot is out wide on the right. I know that if I get that first touch right, they both can’t get there, and I have a clear sight of goal. The flight of the ball is important here: if it’s too high, it takes too much time to come down and I’ll get blocked. Once I realised the first touch was good, I had to concentrate on making the right contact.
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Honigstein: That first touch, a self-assist, if you will, is reminiscent of Dennis Bergkamp.
Lewandowski: That was his speciality. Short, smart first touches that took him past the defender in one sweeping move.
Honigstein: Did you study him and other greats?
Lewandowski: When I was younger, yes. But when I turned professional, I concentrated on my own technique. I was determined to make the most of my skills, not so much by copying others as by practising, again and again, until I could bring my potential to bear.
5-1 vs Wolfsburg (H), September 2015 (final score 5-1)
Honigstein: This is a beautiful volley in its own right but also the culmination of nine minutes of madness: Bayern were 1-0 down, and you came as a substitute on to score a record five goals in that time.
Lewandowski: A bit of football history. The funny thing is I thought that Naldo, the Wolfsburg defender, would clear the ball after Mario Gotze’s cross. But somewhere at the back of my mind, a little voice was telling me to get ready, just in case. Call it a hunch. So I thought, “I need to position my body to hit it, if the ball does get through somehow.” It did. I knew straight away that it was going past the goalkeeper into the corner. Five goals in nine minutes: that record means a lot to me. I remember that I couldn’t really celebrate that much at the time. There was a Champions League game a couple of days later, I was in the zone and couldn’t really enjoy it. It’s only when I had five days off over Christmas that it dawned on me what I had done. That night will stay with me and football history forever.
Honigstein: Would you have attempted this difficult volley if you hadn’t already scored four goals in that match?
Lewandowski: Good question. In this game, I was somewhere else. Not on the pitch. I was flying. Everything worked out. After the first goal, the equaliser, I said to myself, “OK, now one more to win the game.” Then it was 2-1 and I said, “One more for safety.” Then came the fourth and fifth. The funny thing was I left the pitch a bit angry because I could have scored a sixth goal — somebody cleared a shot off the line.
3-0 vs Freiburg (H), March 2013 (final score 5-1)
Honigstein: This one, for Dortmund, is perhaps not as well known but is a real stunner.
Lewandowski: The contact with the defender helps me a lot. I make a bit of space, first of all, but there’s something else as well: when you protect the ball and the defender bounces off you, you get that confidence that’s so important for any striker. I get a bit lucky with the second touch — they don’t clear it properly — then I’m face to face with the keeper. I’m quite crowded, and I have to find a finish quickly. I see he’s quite low down on his legs and off his line, so I go for the chip. It’s a very beautiful goal, very technical.
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The situation determines your finish. The opponents and I are almost at a standstill here, and there’s no good angle. That’s why I went over his head. I had scored a few like that in training, I knew I could do it. It almost happened by itself. Thanks to the many times I had practised that shot, it had become a part of the programme. It’s like pushing a button. There it is.
1-0 vs Atletico Madrid (H), December 2016 (final score 1-0)
Honigstein: You took the odd free kick for Dortmund but have become a specialist over the last few years. Why did that suddenly become a focus?
#OnThisDay in 2⃣0⃣1⃣6⃣
💥 @lewy_official 🆚 Atlético ⚽️🎯💪#FreekickFriday | #UCL | @FCBayern pic.twitter.com/KMTBFjvaaT
— UEFA.com DE (@UEFAcom_de) December 6, 2019
Lewandowski: I thought it’d be a good chance to add a few more goals, so why not? I started training free kicks a lot when Carlo Ancelotti arrived in 2016. This goal was very memorable to me because the celebration became an announcement: my wife and I were expecting our first child. I was mostly concerned with getting the run-up right. Jan Oblak, the goalkeeper, is obviously very good, but he’s quite far over on the right here. I knew that if I could get over the wall with enough power, it would go in, regardless of what he did.
With free kicks, there’s always a bit of luck involved. Sometimes, you score two or three a season, and sometimes none at all because you hit the post or the ball comes off somebody’s hair with the smallest of deflections. Many teams put somebody lying on the floor these days, to enable the wall to jump. That makes our job harder. If you’re 16, 17 metres out, it’s really too close to go for that kind of shot now. But I’ve started training with a higher wall.
1-0 vs Real Madrid (A), April 2017 (final score 2-4)
(Video for some subscribers is available here)
Honigstein: I’ve picked this penalty because I want to discuss your technique. It’s goalkeeper-dependent. You don’t look at the ball and wait for him to make the first move.
Lewandowski: We can talk about that but first, taking a penalty in a Champions League knockout game is a big challenge, emotionally. The pressure is on. You run around a lot, you’re out of breath, and you have less than a minute to calm yourself and slow your pulse down. You do that by concentrating on your breathing and finding a spot of serenity. You remind yourself of your own ability and replace pressure with confidence.
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Honigstein: From a technical perspective, you need to be good enough to hit the ball cleanly without looking at it.
Lewandowski: Yes. If your technique is good enough, taking a penalty “late” gives you a much better chance of scoring than just hitting the target. But you don’t just decide to do it that way. My first penalty taken in that style was in 2016, away to Ingolstadt. I hadn’t practised for a few days or weeks but for months before, in a very systematic way.
3-0 vs Lyon (A), August 2020 (final score 3-0)
(Video available here)
Honigstein: This header, in a Champions League semi-final against Lyon, looks rather unspectacular. But I’m interested in how you find space and such elevation.
Lewandowski: It was almost the final minute. We were 2-0 up. Your opponents are basically beaten at this point, everything is difficult for them. It’s a good time to take advantage. I was looking for space before the corner came in, and I saw a lot of space between the penalty spot and the six-yard box. The point is not to move into the free space immediately — you actually have to move away from it first, to give yourself a two- or three-step run-up into that space. Without that run, you can’t jump high enough.
I know that Joshua Kimmich sees that space as well and will get the ball exactly there. It becomes a matter of timing. But I have the advantage all along. I’ve won the first battle by shrugging off my marker, and he reacts too late to my run. By the time he has adjusted his position, I’m already in the air. I’m in position for the header. The rest is making a good connection and getting the angle right.
3-1 vs Real Madrid (H), April 2013 (final score 4-1)
Honigstein: Here’s the goal and the game that put you firmly on the map. Your third of four for Dortmund in a 4-1 Champions League aggregate semi-final win.
(Video available here)
Lewandowski: I remember every goal vividly. The first one was the equaliser. After the second, I took a second to tell myself, “You’ve just scored two goals against Real Madrid. Unbelievable.”
Honigstein: But it got better.
Lewandowski: Yes. Marcel Schmelzer wanted to shoot but he didn’t connect properly and the ball fell to me. I controlled it, moved a little to the right, passed it to myself, all in the same move, then finished straight away. (Madrid duo) Pepe and Xabi Alonso were next to me. I knew I had to beat them with the quickness of the move. All players were moving one way. If I moved the other way with my first touch, I would have a better chance to lose them and create a bit of space. The finish was incredibly good, high into the near corner. (Keeper) Diego Lopez was well-positioned, I didn’t have much goal to shoot at. I had to go high. It was technically a very good shot, with lots of power.
2-2 vs Barcelona (H), May 2015 (final score 3-2)
Honigstein: This one was very refined, by contrast.
Lewandowski: I had to play both ties in a mask after breaking my nose. It was very difficult for me. In the box, I always saw the ball a fraction late (because the mask restricted his vision), my timing was frequently off. Here, I’m with my back to goal at first but quickly sensed that there was a chance. I had time to turn. No one was making a deep run, I had to go myself with a feint. I needed to move Javier Mascherano one way and then the other to open up a shooting position. The goalkeeper didn’t have a chance to adjust his position, his weight was already on the wrong leg and he couldn’t recover.
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Honigstein: You’re just too fast with your feet.
Lewandowski: I’m fast because I was ready for that situation to arise. Bastian Schweinsteiger was looking at me before he played the ball; that look was a signal to get on my toes and into position. I had enough time to do it by myself. We were 5-1 down on aggregate at this point and needed goals quickly: there was no point playing a safe ball back and waiting for reinforcements. You have to trust yourself to do things on your own at times.
As a centre-forward, you can’t be afraid to be a little egotistical. That selfish streak is necessary for doing the job right.
(Top photos: Getty Images/Design: Sam Richardson)
