Andre Silva says Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski “always knows where to be”

It’s a new season with a new club for Andre Silva, having transferred from Eintracht Frankfurt to RB Leipzig during the transfer window. The Portuguese international finished second in the Bundesliga’s top scorers tally last season (28), second only to Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who broke Gerd Muller’s long-standing, single season scoring record with 41 goals. While he might not have realistic expectations in beating out Lewandowski to the Torjägerkanone this season, the new Leipzig man has a lot of admiration for his counterpart, as he expressed in a recent interview with Bundesliga.com.

Silva highlighted the Polish international’s ability to make the most of the chances that fall his way, and always knowing where to be at the right time as part of what makes him steps above the rest. “I think it’s the amount of goals he scores. He knows the place he has to be and he doesn’t miss the chance. The difference between the top players and average players is the amount of mistakes - it’s not normal when he makes a mistake. So I think that’s the difference. An average player make some mistakes, the top players have few. It happens to everyone but Lewandowski knows where he needs to be and he scores,” Silva explained.

Photo by S. Mellar/Getty Images for FC Bayern

Silva’s moved to a new club that’s also got a new manager in Jesse Marsch since Julian Nagelsmann went to Bayern. He realizes that it will be an adjustment moving on from Frankfurt, but he did mark his competitive debut in Leipzig’s 4-0 DFB-Pokal win over SV Sandhausen with an assist. When he was asked whether or not he thinks he can score another 28 Bundesliga goals this season, Silva didn’t exactly want to say yes or no. “I don’t have a number in mind. I think everywhere is different. I was playing at Eintracht, it was my second year there. Here it’s my first year in Leipzig with a different team, a different coach, everything’s different. So the only thing I can promise, the only thing I can do is work in the same way I worked last year, which was giving my best and trying to do the best that I can in the conditions that I’m in,” he explained.

At Leipzig, the systems are different than they are at Frankfurt, and Silva feels he is well equipped to be able to adapt his playing style to mesh with his new club. “I think that football in general suits me, so I can adapt to different ways of playing. I always fit to them because I can adapt. I think in the world of football, there are always goals. So if there are these, I can adapt” he insisted.

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