Just a few months ago, Barcelona caused a fever when trying to cut tens of millions of euros in wages for their players. But if Robert lewandowski can win the hidden quest that he now knows lies in front of him LaLiga The club’s president, Joan Laporta, should immediately double the Polish striker’s salary.
As long as Lewandowski and Karim Benzema Stay healthy, this season will be a tit-for-tat, tit-for-tat battle between them to score enough goals to take their respective teams to the title.
Real MadridBenzema’s man clearly has a significant advantage, in the last few seasons he broke Vinicius Junior as an excellent and increasingly inspiring attacking partner. Last season, the France-Brazil duo shared a total of 111 goals and assists for Los Blancos simultaneously conquering both Spain and Europe. Devastated.
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And while the old-Bayern Munich Humans have discovered that Pedal, Ansu Fati and Raphinha has an innate understanding of movement in the box, Lewandowski’s strongest title holder as “Vinicius” is someone who is at times brilliant but perpetually disappointing. Ousmane Dembele. These two men, although both have a history in Borussia Dortmundis in a new partnership.
Lewandowski is not known for his patience in the face of second-rate work, and while his tolerance has yet to be broken, not a long one, Saturday win at Seville presented evidence of the scale of the work in front of him. Barcelona, which looked to have conceded two or three in the first 20 minutes, took a 2-0 lead thanks to a fifth goal from Raphinha and Lewandowski in four games.
Sevilla’s corner just before half-time flew to the post, where Pedri caught the volley knowing that the hosts had only two defenders and Dembele lurking in the half. An impromptu, foresight pass. The Frenchman went like a supercharged long-distance runner. His marker, Gonzalo Montielhad a petrified expression on his face.
Only two men properly pursued Dembele’s secession: of Sevilla Joan Jordan and Lewandowski 35 years old. As Jordan slowly began to get the feeling that he was wading through wet cement, Lewandowski relayed, which meant that Barcelona suddenly had a great chance to kill Julen Lopetegui’s side just before the break.
All it took was for Dembele to display a killer mentality by playing a clear pass to his 565-goal attacking partner. Whether you watched the incident or not, you’d guess by now that Dembele did his own lack of wisdom: he ignored his teammates and fueled his madness by hit a narrow shot over the crossbar.
The next thing is funny – unless of course you’re Lewandowski or Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez. Dembele momentarily held his head, without apologizing to his surprised teammate, and then trotted back onto the field as if, Hey! No problem!
The Polish veteran scorer just stood still, his lungs heaving, his hands on his knees, staring at the French player, his mouth hanging open with a surprised expression and said: What the hell did I just witness?! What the hell did I just do a 70 meter sprint for?
That’s exactly the kind of thing you might see Vinicius do with the same ferocious expressions from Messrs. Benzema, Modric and Kroos a few years ago. Not now.
A strong opponent like Lewandowski – who won the Treble with Bayern in his day – knows that any major battle cannot be won by one or two soldiers. It’s not just about him and Dembele making Barcelona great.
However, his and Dembele’s rivalry against Benzema and Vinicius will go a very long way to determining whether Los Blancos or Los Blaugrana Dominate Spain and successfully compete with the best in Europe.
Lewandowski explained to ESPN: “Karim is a fantastic player who just had a brilliant Champions League season. I don’t want to compare myself to him… He’s been in LaLiga for many years – it will. is a new challenge for me.
“Benzema has proven how good he is, but what’s more important is how we play at Barcelona, what we achieve and more importantly we win every game.”
Let’s be clear. This isn’t a relationship falling apart in the limelight – it’s not a crisis. But there is a problem for Barcelona that their main attacking partnership is all rudimentary players and 50% are staffed by a winger who is not a good learner.
Three factors make the problem bigger.
First, the Benzema-Vinicius partnership isn’t simply established significantly longer than Lewandowski-Dembele – it’s truly amazing.
Second, while the brain freeze from the French winger doesn’t count for anything against Sevilla, it could literally make a difference in the tens of millions if it happens again and responsible for Barcelona’s failure to escape their brutal Champions League group stage. on Wednesday, including Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.
And finally, just about the record, not to claim it’s a brutal statistic, but: Lewandowski and Dembele have now played 306 minutes together for Barcelona and they have combined for just one goal.
The highlight is the winger. Lewandowski is the better player, the higher scorer, the top scorer, and he’s the man Xavi has come to love to make the difference as Barcelona strive for big trophies again. He’s made of “the right things” and Dembele, to be honest, isn’t.
The Frenchman’s impact on Barcelona has been high – he provided a total of 13 assists last season, and Xavi is a Protestant but… when Dembele was a player free this summer, and Barca can’t afford to renew him, none other than the big club see him as a sought-after world-class player on a bargain financial condition.
If Vinicius is out of contract for the past two months, that will be the story of the summer. Let me talk a bit about the bones: The Brazilian, who just turned 22, last season in 52 games in all competitions brought Madrid 22 goals and 20 assists.
Dembele? Theoretically, his prime at the age of 25, makes Xavi delighted and determined to keep him because of the stats last season read: 32 games, two goals, 13 assists.
There are reasons. Dembele sometimes bursts with genius touches, yes. Yet the reliability of doing the right thing, sometimes even the most fundamental thing, as Lewandowski discovered on Saturday night? Absolutely not.
This French enigma shares some traits with Vinicius – even one where he is markedly stronger. Each player is endowed with not only great speed but also the ability to dribble past opponents at amazingly high speeds.
The two men ensure that if an opposing team is playing with a high defence, they are guaranteed a tense night as Vinicius and Dembele can be played by teammates and make any space between the goalkeepers. and his defense looks so innocent, bordering on illusion.
And if this is the Top Trumps card game, the strength that Dembele clearly has over Vinicius is that he is actually bipedal.
But Vinicius is not only better overall, but also a good listener and learner. His greatest tutor is not Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, is it? Luka Modric – that’s Benzema.
Before that, Vinicius explained: “I’ve never played with a striker at Karim’s level. From the beginning, I gave him space to play and so did he with me. We tried to complete it. improve this relationship – so I can give more support, score more goals and help the team more.
“I’ve always had confidence but when you start scoring and assisting more you become more important to the team and of course the confidence increases.”
These are especially things that Lewandowski, even more so than Xavi, must install in Dembele’s brain if they, as a duo, want to close the competitive gap in Madrid.
An assist for Barcelona’s No 7 made his forward a jewel. With his right foot, with his left foot, Lewandowski sprinted to open the scoring and create a heel strike that sealed the score 3-0 and the match against Valladolid at Camp Nou last week.
Interestingly, while Lewandowski was celebrating, disturbed by his teammates, his instructions were very clear Jules Kounde how and when he wants the ball to be sent to him. Next week? Kounde assists, Lewandowski scores. Those who listen benefit. Will Dembele be one of them?
At the moment, Camp Nou’s King Robert is happy to offer positive words of encouragement about his winger’s potential.
The Barcelona forward told ESPN: “Ousmane is a great player with top qualities. I hope he stays healthy all season. If Dembele concentrates on the game like he is now, he will. He can score a lot of goals and provide a lot of support.
“On the pitch, I want to guide my teammates with my body language, to show them that no matter how many goals we score, we can always score more.
“Always thinking positively, always looking forward. Always working hard. That’s what I want.”
For Dembele, school is in session. Every day should be a day of learning. Or else Professor Lewandowski’s body language and vocabulary will change – radically. See this space.
