Player to watch: Robert Lewandowski – Bayern Munich’s top-rate target man

Bayern Munich's on-fire striker Robert Lewandowski is Ian Hawkey's player to see of the week.

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski celebrates scoring against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Tuesday night. Peter Kneffel / EPA / September 29, 2015

Player to watch ... Robert Lewandoski

To call it a hot streak would be to understate the sort of form he is in as he prepares for what again looks like the most testing fixture of Bayern Munich's season. For Lewandowski, who has seven goals from his past two Bundesliga outings and a goal every 42 minutes he has been on the pitch this league season, games against Borussia Dortmund, his former employer and opponents on Sunday, are especially resonant.

Read more: Ian Hawkey's player to watch last week – Yann Sommer of Borussia Monchengladbach

Record breaker

Lewandowski also scored twice in midweek in the Uefa Champions League as Bayern, who have won all their league, European and DFB-Pokal (German Cup) games so far this season, continue to flex the muscles that have made them runaway Bundesliga champions the past two years. He scored twice last weekend against Mainz, too, although the stand-out event in his breathtaking run came 10 days ago.

Wolfsburg blitzed

Introduced as a half-time substitute against Wolfsburg, with Bayern trailing 1-0, Lewandowksi had his first goal on 51 minutes. By the 55th, he had the fastest hat-trick in Bundesliga history. He had not finished there. By the hour mark, he had scored five times. Bayern had won 5-1 against last season’s runners-up.

Debt to Dortmund

Dortmund look likelier than Wolfsburg to be Bayern’s closest pursuers, domestically. They have been the chief threat to Bayern most of the past decade and when Lewandowski, the captain of the Poland national team, was building his reputation as an accomplished, all-round centre-forward at Dortmund, he won two league titles with them.

Tense transfer

He also lost a Champions League final with Dortmund, against Bayern, in 2013. The following summer he moved south, just as former Dortmund colleague Mario Gotze had 12 months earlier. It is a pattern that has hurt Dortmund, who struggled last season but have started strongly under new coach Thomas Tuchel. They sit four points beneath Bayern in the table.

Peak of his powers

Has Lewandowski improved since switching to Bayern? The coach of the German champions, Pep Guardiola, has never regarded a tall, target-man type of centre-forward as essential, and last week urged Lewandowski to contribute more outside the penalty area. “You always want more from all your players as a coach,” said Guardiola, “but I also know how important goals are for a striker’s confidence”.

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