“The jury is out” on how Bayern Munich will ultimately replace Robert Lewandowski

When Robert Lewandowski left Bayern Munich in favor of FC Barcelona, there was a slight sense of panic on how the club would replace such a productive player.

The short answer is: You can’t.

Bayern Munich, however, did well to assemble a squad that looks keen to be a “production by committee” solution — and it has worked for the large part (recent Bundesliga efforts aside).

When asked if Bayern Munich was missing Lewandowski, former player and noted pundit Didi Hamann said he thought the team was doing well to make up for Lewandowski’s departure.

“Well, it hasn’t looked that way so far because the team has been free scoring and free flowing. Obviously, you look at last weekend and I think Bayern Munich had 30+ shots at goal, with some people saying if Lewandowski would have been there then they win the game. It remains to be seen at times there will be games where he’s missed because he scored 40 goals,” Hamann told FreeSuperTips (as made exclusively available to Bavarian Football Works). “Now there’s an opportunity to share the goals around and we’ll have to wait and see.”

Hamann absolutely believes that is will be a group effort to replace Lewandowski for the long haul and Sadio Mané will be a big part of the effort.

“It doesn’t matter if Mané scores 20 goals or whatever it might be, it’s just important that he scores the important goals because that’s what Lewandowski did,” Hamann said. “The jury’s out on that situation, but it’s something that they couldn’t change. He wanted to leave, he wanted a new challenge, and they got a decent transfer fee for him. So far, they’ve not missed him but playing without a No. 9 isn’t easy. They’re not used to it, so it could provide issues in certain games as the season goes on.”

Bayern Munich, of course, is throwing a ton of talent (and salary budget) at its attack with Mané, Leroy Sané, Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman, Jamal Musiala, Mathys Tel, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting all being part of the solution so far.

How it all plays out over the course of the season remains to be seen.