With 40 goals through their first 13 La Liga matches and 15 in 4 Champions League fixtures, Barcelona are averaging well over three goals per game to kick off the Hansi Flick era and are thus on pace to break some attacking records.
Step aside MSN, because the quintet of Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Dani Olmo, and Pedri are leading the way for a Barcelona attack that is rapid-fire, multi-faceted, highly athletic, technical, and absolutely devastating on the counterattack.
Yamal is the crown jewel of this Barcelona side as a 17-year-old who already has a serious case for being the world’s best, especially since the entire attack floundered without him in a rare shutout defeat to Real Sociedad 1-0 this past Sunday.
But as brilliant as Yamal is and as irreplaceable as he appeared to be against Real Sociedad, the Blaugrana do have another phenom on the wing rising up the ranks in Toni Fernandez, and they can start Raphinha on the right hand side.
What they don’t have, however, is a backup to Robert Lewandowski, and although his back injury at the international “break” is so minor that you begin to wonder if it’s not just an excuse to give him extra rest, it is a reminder that Barcelona can’t afford to have anything happen to him.
In terms of skill set and ability, Yamal is very much irreplaceable, too, but I’d like to make the case for Lewandowski being the ultimate player Barcelona can’t afford to lose.
Goals win you games in world football, and you only have to ask teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, and even Real Madrid how many points can be dropped over the course of a season just because you have everything else in place except a player with real box presence and the finishing chops to boot.
Lewandowski has been the epitome of world-class finishing since he started hitting his stride with Borussia Dortmund about a decade ago, eventually becoming a Gerd Muller record-breaking machine at Bayern Munich.
Although the Polish international had to mold his game back to being a little more well-rounded at Barcelona, Hansi Flick has helped the 36-year-old unleash the beast within to the tune of 14 goals in 13 La Liga starts.
No player has as many goals as Lewandowski in Europe’s top five leagues, as the Barcelona star has three more goals than Bundesliga duo Harry Kane and Omar Marmoush, who play in a league much more conducive to scoring (though, caveat, Lewandowski has played three more games than both of them).
After Marc Guiu went to Chelsea, Barcelona don’t even have a promising La Masia product to step in for Lewa if anything were to happen, and he already ran off Vitor Roque to Real Betis because the Brazilian phenom couldn’t even get a game over the veteran No. 9.
But that’s how good Lewandowski is. He’s so reliable, technically brilliant, positionally astute, capable of creating chances, and consistently clinical that Barcelona wouldn’t dream of giving him a rest.
He’s in such great shape and so professional with his approach that they don’t need to. Over the course of a full La Liga and Champions League season, Lewandowski, with only Ferran Torres as a makeshift backup, is the main man up top that Barca could least afford to lose.
