Can Sadio Mane fill Robert Lewandowski’s boots at Bayern Munich?

Bayern Munich have been the dominant force in Germany for the past decade, but does Sadio Mane have what it takes to replace Robert Lewandowski?

How good was Robert Lewandowski? 

The Polish striker played a starring role at Bayern Munich during his eight year stay with the club as he scored 344 goals across his 375 appearances. 

He scored 238 of his goals in the Bundesliga, scoring an average of 29.75 league goals each season. 

Lewandowski was also one of the most clinical strikers in Europe last season as he overperformed his xG by 2.4 goals in the Bundesliga and 3.5 goals in the Champions League. 

Last season he scored 36% of the 97 goals they scored in the Bundesliga as they wrapped up their 10th consecutive league title with 77 points. 

Bayern took 19.8 shots per game, which was five more than any other Bundesliga side. 

Julian Nagelsmann’s side also dominated the ball as they averaged 61% possession, which was the most in the Bundesliga.  

Even if you take away the goals Lewandowski scored last season, Bayern would still have been the fifth highest scoring side last season, but that’s not to suggest Lewandowski won’t be sorely missed. 

 

Is Sadio Mane the right man for Bayern? 

At Liverpool, Sadio Mane was often overshadowed by Mohamed Salah as the Egyptian outscored Mane in each of his five seasons at the club. 

However, Mane has played just as big a role as Salah in Liverpool’s revival under Jurgen Klopp. 

Throughout his six year stay at Anfield, Mane has scored 120 goals in 269 appearances, with his best season coming in 2018/19 where he scored 26 goals across all competitions. 

Mane scored at a rate of 0.44 goals per game, which is a drop off from Lewandowski’s 0.92 goals per game, but some contextual factors have to be taken into consideration. 

Until the 21/22 season, Mane was used almost exclusively as a left winger, who averaged around 2.4 shots per game. 

In contrast to this, Lewandowski was the focal point of Bayern’s attacking patterns and he averaged around 4.6 shots per game. 

In his final season with Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp started to experiment with using Mane down the middle, in order to accommodate Luis Diaz on the left. 

With the likes of Leroy Sane, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry all vying for positions on the wing, it would be fair to assume that Mane could be utilised through the middle for Julian Nagelsmann’s side.  

Despite chipping in with 16 league goals last season, Mane actually underperformed his xG by 0.7 goals in the Premier League and so this is an area where he will need to brush up on. 

The Champions League was a slightly different story as he slightly overperformed his xG by 0.3 goals, but he is yet to reach the clinical numbers Lewandowski would regularly put up. 

Bayern will be looking towards Mane to be their talisman in the Champions League and his previous record of scoring big goals would suggest he’s capable of taking up this mantle. 

Mane’s best goalscoring season in the Champions League came in 2017/18 when he scored 10 goals in Europe.  

 

How will Bayern line up this season? 

As well as the signing of Sadio Mane, Bayern have also bolstered their defensive options by bringing in Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui.  

The addition of     Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax also freshens up their midfield and lowers the average age of the squad. 

Gravenberch is one of the most promising young players in European football right now and he will be a nice addition to the midfield alongside Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka. 

If all of their new signings gel and Sadio Mane manages to hit the ground running, there’s no reason why they can’t be competing on all fronts again this season.