Bayern Munich: Lewandowski leads Bundesliga top scorer race after Hinrunde

With the halfway point of the Bundesliga season reached, Robert Lewandowski leads the league in goal scoring after 17 matchdays. The Bayern Munich striker finishes the first half of the season with 19 goals and holds a three-goal advantage over second-place entering the winter break.

Although his impressive goal total seems to be enough to hold a commanding lead, Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick has emerged as a close contender due to his strong showing in December. As the season enters the second half of the campaign, it promises to be an exciting battle in the race to become the Bundesliga’s top scorer for the 2021/22 season.

Lewandowski remains consistent

It’s been another impressive display of consistency from Lewandowski this season. He has scored in 13 of his 17 league appearances with five of those appearances being multi-goal performances. If he continues to score goals at his current rate then he will record his third consecutive season of 30 goals or more in the Bundesliga.

Although he is just off the pace to record another 40 goal season, the possibility of Lewandowski still accomplishing this should not be ruled out. He needs to score 21 goals in the second half of the season to register a 40 goal campaign and Lewandowski is certainly capable of doing this. Could there even be 23 goals recorded in the second half of the season and a new record? With Lewandowski, it seems at times that anything is possible.

Schick’s incredible December

With eight goals scored during December, Schick has skyrocketed up the top goal scorer leaderboard. The Czech Republic international sits in second place with 16 goals in 14 appearances. Impressively, he has a better goal per 90 minutes played average than Lewandowski. Schick has registered 1.31 goals per 90 minutes played compared to 1.18 for Lewandowski.

It will be interesting to see if Schick is able to continue to produce goals at this current rate in the second half of the season. The striker has already reached a career-high goal tally with his 16 goals scored and is on pace for 30+ goals. Schick has not been a factor in the top scorer standings in his two previous seasons in the German top-flight so his presence near the top has been one of the most surprising stories of the season thus far. The 25-year-old might just finish as one of the top players in the European Golden Boot standings.

Erling Haaland still in the race

Although Haaland was sidelined with an injury earlier this season, he’s still managed to score 13 goals in 11 appearances for Borussia Dortmund. The Norwegian striker has the same number of multi-goal performances in the Bundesliga this season as Lewandowski has recorded. For this reason, he remains very much a factor in the race for the top scorer spot. He is capable of many more multi-goal performances and Haaland could close the gap to Lewandowski in the second half of the season if he can remain healthy.