Bayern Munich: Robert Lewandowski opens up on recent problems in attack
After a good August and September, October was a strange month for Bayern Munich. They suffered the first defeat of the season against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Moreover, the Bavarian club was also knocked out of the DFB Pokal after a humiliating 5-0 defeat against Borussia Monchengladbach.
As the season has progressed, Die Roten has improved under Nagelsmann. However, the last few weeks have seen the team struggling a bit despite getting victories. The international break has come at the right time for Nagelsmann to find solutions for problems.
Robert Lewandowski has been enjoying a good goalscoring form this season. He is one of the favourites for the Ballon d’Or award in 2021. The Polish striker already has 23 goals to his name this season across all competition. Even though Lewandowski has been consistently finding the back of the net, but his run of scoring in every game since February came to an end during October.
Even though Lewandowski has been scoring consistently, he has been facing problems in the final third. While talking to the media before Poland’s game this week (via iMiaSanMia), Lewandowski admitted that there had been problems in the team’s attack over the last few games.
"“At Bayern, it hasn’t been easy for me recently to find scoring situations or a place on the pitch. When you play with six attacking players and your opponents are very defensive, it’s not an easy thing for a forward.”“In the last games, it took me a while to find a spot and get the ball. And even when I get it, it’s still too crowded. There have been games where I didn’t have many balls for the first 20 minutes, I had to drop really deep to get it.”"
Having your talisman speak about tactics so openly in media is never a good sign, but his feedback could eventually help Nagelsmann in the long run. Moreover, he is talking, in general, more about the difficulties Die Roten is facing while facing teams that sit behind the ball and defend resolutely.
Nagelsmann has made a fine start to life in Bavaria. He has quickly implemented his ideas on the team. Despite the aberration in Borussia Park, Die Roten looks much better defensively than last season, and the counter-pressing form the entire unit has been promising to watch.
With more time in the training ground with the team, the issues in the final third will also get sorted sooner rather than later. After the current international break, Nagelsmann will get a lot of time with the entire squad in training as the next international break will be in March 2022.
The immediate focus for Nagelsmann will be preparing for the game against Augsburg after the international break. The German coach could be without five senior players due to the COVID-19 infection to Niklas Sule. Nagelsmann will be hoping that he doesn’t lose any more players to injury or COVID during the international break.