Robert Lewandowski struggling worst purpose drought in 12 years

“Earlier than Barcelona I used to be a machine,” Robert Lewandowski mirrored earlier this season, “right here I’ve turn into extra human.”

For years at Borussia Dortmund after which all through his total Bayern Munich tenure, Lewandowski was the high-spec instance of the final word goalscorer. Consistently in quest of one other software program replace, no acquire was too marginal for a striker who does focus workout routines on his days off and eats pudding earlier than his most important course as a result of sugars digest faster than protein.

Nonetheless, the sands of time are starting to be catching up even to the person hailed by Pep Guardiola as “essentially the most skilled participant I’ve ever met”.

Lewandowski toiled away on the tip of Barcelona’s blunt assault for 90 ineffective minutes towards Shakhtar Donetsk in a limp 1-0 Champions League defeat on Tuesday. It was his sixth consecutive membership look with out a purpose, Lewandowski’s longest scoring drought in additional than 12 years.

The as soon as prolific Pole has not discovered the online since a late brace towards Celta Vigo in September. Much more damningly, Lewandowski’s 9 pictures throughout this barren sequence have all been off beam and price a collective 0.86 xG (per ESPN).

Whereas the latest gully in entrance of purpose has been dramatic, that is merely the continuation of a decline which has set in for the reason that World Cup. Previous to the winter sojourn in Qatar, Lewandowski was averaging a purpose each 89 minutes for Barcelona within the league and Europe. That determine has swollen to 1 each 167 minutes in 2023.

The drop-off is just not fairly so excessive when analyzing the underlying numbers – Lewandowski was having fun with a ending sizzling streak in 2022 and has missed extra possibilities than anticipated this calendar yr – however it’s clear that the 35-year-old is getting fewer scoring alternatives.

Lewandowski is just not alone in his attacking struggles. Barcelona collectively mustered only one shot heading in the right direction towards Shakhtar. Xavi admitted his facet “deserved to lose”. “We performed badly and nothing we had deliberate got here off,” Barcelona’s supervisor fumed. “We’re indignant. Confidence has dropped, we’re in a little bit of a rut and we’d like a reset.”

The final time Lewandowski went this lengthy with out a purpose, Andy Carroll was the eighth most costly participant in soccer historical past.

Borussia Dortmund sniffed across the cut price bins on the time and had been so cautious of splashing lower than €5m on an unproven Polish ahead in 2010 that they launched 30 totally different scouting journeys to see him prove for Lech Poznan. When Lewandowski finally arrived at Dortmund, following a failed transfer to Blackburn Rovers, Jurgen Klopp fielded him as a second striker behind Lucas Barrios.

This withdrawn position helped clarify the dry spell. Dortmund’s sturdy kind on the flip of the yr – dropping simply one in all Lewandowski’s ten goalless matches – ensured that there was little, if any, gnashing of enamel.

Klopp quickly reconfigured the facet’s assault across the muscular and cell frontman. Throughout his subsequent 11 seasons in Germany, ‘LewanGOALski’ by no means went greater than 5 consecutive video games with out scoring for Borussia or Bayern Munich.

This time final yr, the Spanish press produced their very own homages to one in all Thomas Muller’s worst dad jokes, hailing the Pole as GOALandowski and LETHALdowski. Each far inferior. Xavi merely dubbed him a “assure of objectives”.

If Barcelona are to retain their La Liga title and keep away from extra European heartache this time period, they are going to want final season’s prime scorer to rattle by all of the tips and rituals in his instruction handbook.

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