Jupp Heynckes could very easily preserve one of his personal career records by simply not fielding Robert Lewandowski in Saturday’s meeting with Schalke. However, that’s extremely unlikely to happen. “I think the boss has his fingers crossed for me,” Lewandowski said on Thursday. The Pole is obviously hoping to feature against the Royal Blues and add to his current Bundesliga total of 18 goals. “If I manage that, we’ll both be in a good mood,” the striker observed.
The record in question was set by Heynckes back in 1972/73 as Borussia Mönchengladbach centre-forward, when he scored at least once in each of the Foals’ first 11 home matches of the Bundesliga campaign. Lewandowski could equal this historic best-mark against Schalke.
Runaway leader in the goalscoring chart
The Polish hitman is hardly lacking in motivation as he has set himself an ambitious personal target: “At least 30 goals by the end of the season.” Lewy finished on the magic 30-goal mark in the last two top-flight campaigns, and this time around is all but certain to seal the Torjägerkanone, the cannon-shaped trophy for the league’s top scorer. The FCB man is currently five clear of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, an Arsenal player since last week, and seven ahead of Alfred Finnbogason of Augsburg, who is injured at the moment.
“I’m not battling anyone else, I’m battling myself,” noted Lewandowski, insisting he was only focused on his own performance. “What matters is that I play well and score goals. At the end of the day, maybe there’ll be a ‘3’ in front of my total again.” The striker naturally enjoys total backing from Heynckes. “He was a good goalscorer and he’s a good coach,” the 29-year-old said, “he always tries to help me, and I always get great advice from him.” Even when his own personal record is set to be broken, it seems.
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