When it comes to scoring, Bruno Labbadia rates as an expert. The former striker netted 204 goals as a pro, 103 of them in the Bundesliga, 101 in the second division. He scored 28 times for FC Bayern between 1991 and 1994. The 49-year-old knows what he is talking about when it comes to forwards, goals and the box, so it is not surprising that Labbadia recently named Robert Lewandowski as one of his three favourite attackers besides Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.
“Robert is an incredibly complete striker,” said Labbadia, praising the Pole's “outstanding qualities.” It is unclear whether he has changed his opinion after Friday's 2-1 defeat from a Hamburg point of view. Who could blame him for that? After all, it was Lewandowski who wrapped up the victory for Bayern with his goals after 36 and 60 minutes in the first league match of the year.
50 goals in 76 matches
“We know he's an excellent player. He's very important for us,” FCB skipper Philipp Lahm said about his team-mate, who has equalled the number of times he netted in the entire previous campaign by scoring his goals number 16 and 17. Besides, the 2-1 match-winner was Lewandowski's 50th goal for Bayern in a mere 76 competitive fixtures.
Not everything worked out well for Bayern in the first match after the winter break, but Poland's sports personality of the year picked up where he left off in the first half of the campaign. He was one of the key players in the Bayern squad against HSV, and not only because of his goals. He took a total of eight shots on goal, and posed a threat whenever he had the ball.
65 percent of all FCB goals
Lewandowski was not the only man making a fine start to the footballing year: Thomas Müller had a good day too. “From my point of view it couldn't have gone better, I'm happy,” commented Müller, who was awarded the penalty which put Bayern on their way and later provided the assist to make it two. It was Müller's sixth assist in the current campaign, four of them tapped home by Lewandowski.
“We've played many games together and get along very well,” Lewy said about his team-mate in the build-up to the clash with Hamburg. “We don't need to talk a lot, we both know how the other plays and where he's running,” the Pole commented on a mutual understanding that has plenty of potential for the upcoming weeks. With 31 goals between them, the two have scored 65 percent of Bayern’s goals this season. Bruno Labbadia may have to revise his top three.
Topics of this article