How can Bayern Munich replace Robert Lewandowski ahead of the PSG Champions League draw?

Robert Lewandowski will miss all of Bayern Munich’s Champions League quarter-finals with Paris Saint-Germain after injuring his right knee ligaments, the Bundesliga champions have confirmed.

Lewandowski, a 42-goal scorer in 36 games this season, was already in doubt for the top of the Bundesliga standings against RB Leipzig after suffering an injury in Poland’s 3-0 win over Andorra in the qualifying round. World Cup. By excluding him from tomorrow’s game against England, the Polish federation had set an initial timeline of up to 10 days for the 32-year-old’s recovery, but this was significantly improved after further tests from Bayern Munich .

“Robert Lewandowski contracted a ligament in his right knee,” his club said in a statement. “The FC Bayern striker will be out for around four weeks.

“After Poland’s 3-0 win over Andorra, Lewandowski returned early to Munich, where a diagnosis was made by the medical team of record-breaking champions Germany. The 32-year-old had scored the first two goals in Sunday’s game, before having to leave. the pitch after an hour after a clash. “

A four-week schedule doesn’t even guarantee that Lewandowski will be available for the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals (due on April 27-28) if Bayern get that far. This task has become much more difficult for the reigning European champions without their star striker against a side of PSG who knocked out Barcelona in the round of 16. According to the William Hill sportsbook, the odds of winning the match increased from -145 to -115, with the odds of a draw increasing from +320 to +300 and the odds of a PSG victory dropping from + 330 to +275.

As well as being unavailable for the trip to RB Leipzig on Sunday, Lewandowski will also miss domestic matches against Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen in the sixth. Bayern currently hold a four-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga with eight games to go.

How will Bayern line up without Lewandowski?

This is the scenario Bayern Munich must have feared when they sent Lewandowski to the Polish national team, their most important player coming back in worse form than he left. That they lost him in a game against Andorra which Poland could have won without him will be all the more maddening, even if Paulo Sousa and his team would be absolutely right to say that they have every right to use the players at their disposal as they see it. adjust.

It’s hard to overestimate how important Lewandowski’s absence is for Bayern. Arguably the best player in European competition, he has scored 40 of his team’s 100 goals in the Bundesliga and Champions League this season. Only one other player even reached double numbers. Hansi Flick’s squad are designed to give Lewandowski chances, who will score a full one. Now they have to rethink things.

Lewandowski’s injury is a real headache for Flick and an issue Bayern managers have rarely faced before. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the forward has only missed nine games due to injury. Such availability means that the German champions didn’t really have to come up with a plan B. This season Lewandowski has played 90% of Bundesliga minutes and has only been excluded from the starting XI twice, in a a 4-1 defeat to Hoffenheim on September 27 and a victory in Cologne just over a month later. Likewise, he started every Champions League game except for two de facto rubbers who died after winning first place in Group A.

In three of those four games, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting led the line (Joshua Zirkzee, now on loan at Parma, did so in the loss at Hoffenheim) and he would be Flick’s natural choice if he wanted to play with an Orthodox striker. The former Stoke City forward may not have exactly the profile one expects from a key player in a European superclub, but the reality is that when Lewandowski is so constantly available that there is makes little sense to spend a lot on a reserve option, although this approach is likely to occur. turning against PSG.

Choupo-Moting also has a history of delivering in big games and will know his opponent inside and out, after all he filled a similar role at PSG between 2018 and 2020 and scored one of their most important goals of all. time when he scored the winner against Atalanta in last year’s Champions League quarter-finals. He also has a knack for finding shooting positions, in the league and in European matches, he has the second-highest number of goals expected (a measure that assesses the quality of shots taken) for 90 at Bayern behind Lewandowski.

Flick also offers more unorthodox alternatives. Thomas Muller has flourished as an attacking midfielder but has the build and technical skills to lead the line, in 66 games as a Bayern center-forward, he averages one goal every 143 minutes, barely the levels Lewandowski has reached in recent years, but nothing to do with it. be sniffed.

Bayern Munich scorers in the Bundesliga and Champions League

Otherwise, Serge Gnabry could work as a generic option. He was deployed up front by Joachim Low for the German national team most often and knows how to find the net from that position. The former Arsenal winger also has a healthy habit of excelling on the bigger stage with nine goals in the Champions League win last season.

Moving Gnabry to the center-forward would require a significant change in Flick’s approach, perhaps with more emphasis on the quick transitions of him, Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman with Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich in the d-line. supply. But something major is going to have to change anyway. Bayern have just lost their best player. There is no easy solution to this.