Robert Lewandowski refuses to get old

There wasn’t a shortage of Barcelona-centric talking points heading into the 2025-26 season.

Inside the club, the hope was their squad was deep enough to once again contend in all competitions, despite having to be resourceful in the transfer market due to their ongoing precarious finances. This was year two of the Hansi Flick era, who was looking to fine tune a daring game model which netted Barca a domestic sweep of titles and nearly got them to their first Champions League final since 2015. Lamine Yamal inherited the iconic No. 10 shirt over the summer after submitting one of the best years from a prospect in a very long time.

It’s hard for storylines involving Barcelona to be under the radar given the club’s size, but if there was one, it was the continued reliance on Robert Lewandowski. In his age 35 season, he had arguably his most productive campaign since leaving Bayern Munich in 2022, scoring 42 goals in all competitions. Whenever he wasn’t in the lineup, Barca’s attack didn’t function with the same level of crispness. Someone at the late stage of their career like Lewandowski is shouldn’t still have such impressive output relative to their position.

How Barcelona played certainly helped influence Lewandowski’s numbers. Flick’s hiring was fascinating because the Bayern sides he managed were high octane both in and out of possession. They’d stretch the pitch to make it as big as possible in order to create central passing lanes, and then get the ball through the midfield in a quick manner. From there, the forwards had license to drift and help create overloads, with ample runners looking to stretch the opposition in dynamic moments. That recipe allowed Flick’s Bayern sides to place a greater emphasis on verticality compared to other dominant sides in Europe. This bled into their out of possession framework, where there was a ton of high intensity sprinting to cover the ground from the in-possession approach. Bayern in 2019-20 sprinted and covered more ground than some of the great Bayern sides of the 2010s.  

As such, there was intrigue over how he could combine his higher tempo football on both sides of the ball with how Barcelona have traditionally played. Defensively, the extreme high line was the biggest talking point of their OOP framework. No team in Europe’s big 5 leagues caught their opponent offside than Barca’s 181, 62 more than second place Parma.

One drawback to the increased tempo in their attack was the larger space needed to cover during counterpress situations Their defensive distance (average distance from goal defensive actions are taken) was 1st in La Liga at 51.27. At its best, the offside trap became almost automatic, although that started to taper off by the final stretch of the season. Their defensive activity map shows how high the line was.

Unsurprisingly, Barcelona’s ultra aggressive offside trap was accompanied by a combative press. Whether it be passes per defensive action, the proportion of opponent pass receipts that are met with a pressure or defensive action within 2 seconds, or % of team's total pressures in the attacking half, Barca were tops in La Liga. Lewandowski’s role within the press was interesting, as it varied between being part of the front line or marking the opposition’s deep midfielder while Yamal and Raphinha led the press. At his advanced age, he put in an admirable shift and could toggle responsibilities enough to not hinder the defensive structure. However, his awareness wasn’t airtight, to go along with a motor which didn’t always rev at its highest.

The results going forward in attack were even greater than on defense, performing at an extremely high level. No team in the big 5 leagues scored more total goals than Barcelona in 2024-25 with 102. Only Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich had a higher goals per game rate. According to FBref, only PSG registered a higher non-penalty expected goal per game rate. Barca reached a point where the players were seamlessly creating space to exploit, and constantly puncturing opposition defenses. 

Such a gameplan helped platform the incredible talent on Barcelona’s squad, including in attack. All three of Raphinha, Lewandowski, and Yamal thrived in these conditions, to go along with the synergy of their respective skill-sets. Through Flick’s coaching, Raphinha was reimagined as something of a second striker. Him and Lewandowski would constantly alternate positions during different game states, with the Brazilian running into open space in behind as a fallback option if needed. He could also create for Lewandowski if the roles are reversed, assisting on three of the Polish striker’s goals. Unsurprisingly, he had the best season of his career and was a legitimate candidate for the Ballon D’Or, a remarkable turnaround from previously being an occasional starter and nearly leaving in the summer of 2024.  

Yamal is the x-factor of that attacking trio, the lead on-ball creator in the final third. He plays the game like a 10 year veteran, yet he won’t turn 19 until next summer, which is frightening. He’s already got signature passes he can call to when needed (short-range crosses, trivelas), and is a cultured dribbler despite not having blistering north ➡ south athleticism like others of his archetype. He’s vital in unlocking set defenses in Spanish football, which has catapulted him into rarified air in terms of present and historical comparisons.

Compared to Raphinha and Yamal, Lewandowski’s role in Barca’s attack last season was less glamorous but still vital to how the team functioned. Although he did drop into pockets of space while others made runs in behind, he largely occupied the center-backs to provide depth and push the opposition back to create gaps between the midfield and defensive lines. A common occurrence was him helping direct team-mates’ passes and runs by pointing at who the free man was. Strikers who make it easier for others without having to touch the ball carry latent value through their off-ball gravity, and Lewandowski has long been one of the best at this. 

Lewandowski can also manufacture opportunities for himself. His nose for goal has long made him a threat for quick dashes towards the six yard box, including gobbling up rebounds. He can reset by ghosting into an onside position before attempting another run, or moving towards the far post to get on the end of short-range crosses. On occasion when the opposition are trying to reset their defensive line, he’ll sprint in behind against their momentum to catch them flat footed. The end result is a pristine shot map full of high danger opportunities.

What has also helped Lewandowski age gracefully is he’s long been a convincing shot-taker, with a wide range of finishes in his repertoire. This includes shooting with conviction from either foot, first time attempts on cutbacks, moving across the defender to take them out of the play to create clear opportunities for himself, or contorting his body in different ways to get shots off in the box which others wouldn’t be able to. His goal reel from last season is a good illustration of the wide range of finishes he can call upon. 

Lewandowski has done incredibly well to be an effective striker going into his late 30s. Although no longer the unicorn #9 who could do almost everything both on and off the ball while scoring goals for fun with Bayern, the bedrocks of his game (off-ball movement & spatial awareness, diverse shot-taking, above average link-up play) have allowed him to remain one of the best at his position and one of the better players in Europe overall.

It shouldn’t be understated just how gentle of a decline Lewandowski has shown. Forwards in their age 35 season don’t normally finish tied for 5th across Europe’s big five leagues in combined goals and assists. Within the top 20, the closest in age were Romelu Lukaku, Mohamed Salah, and Ante Budimir. However, each of them were born around 3-5 years earlier.

There’s been a litany of public work done on aging curves for players in European football. This can be traced back to the early 2010s, including work done on the ole Statsbomb blog. Michael Caley’s Expecting Goals newsletter has gone even deeper on the impact of aging curves in football analytics, including how positional changes can play a role. Outside of a few exceptional cases, the work done on the topic over the years has shown attackers in their mid 30s to not be anywhere near this impactful.

We can also simply compare where Lewandowski is at in his career to other prominent strikers of a similar age from the 2010s. Luis Suarez’s last high impact year in Europe was his age 33 season with Atletico Madrid in 2020-21, and he’s currently in MLS riding shotgun to Lionel Messi. Edinson Cavani had some bright moments with Manchester United in his early 30s in 2020-21, but it ended up being his last run of good form in Europe. Perhaps Karim Benzema could’ve shown a similar career arc to Lewandowski had he stayed in Europe, since he still provided a ton of value with Real Madrid in his mid 30s before leaving for Al-Ittihad. 

This season has been something of a slog for Barcelona. Injuries to several of their key players has hampered the club’s ability to reach the heights seen in year 1 under Flick. The lack of a stable starting XI has allowed opponents to do a better job of slowing them down through aggressive man-to-man marking. All the while, different tactics are being utilized to take advantage of their trademark high line. Fast break opportunities are being conceded at an alarming rate despite the enormous territorial dominance. According to Opta Analyst, no other La Liga side has conceded more goals from fast breaks than Barca’s four.

The hectic environment has made it harder to tell how much Lewandowski has left in the tank. His shot and expected goal numbers still look very good, although he’s only started 3 league matches from a possible 8. Two of his four goals in La Liga came from a substitute cameo versus Valencia, helping prop up his output. Barcelona relied heavily on the Raphinha/Lewandowski/Yamal trio, yet they’ve not started a match together this season. It might be some time before they do, given Lewandowski is currently recovering from a hamstring injury. 2025-26 could be the season where he plays less than 2000 league minutes, which hasn’t happened since his first year with Borussia Dortmund. With a contract expiring at the end of June, and rumors hinting of no renewal on the horizon from Barcelona’s side, we might be approaching the end of Lewandowski’s run in Spanish football.

Quite simply, Robert Lewandowski has been one of the best players of the 21st century. He’s scored a ludicrous amount of goals over the years, and his skill-set has helped amplify the team’s attack at every club he’s played for. Being reunited with Hansi Flick, and playing off of incredible talents, led to his best run of form in Spain last season. So far, season four as a Barcelona player has not gone to plan, and this is the point of the aging curve where the wheel can start to truly fall off. For Barcelona to reach their lofty goals in 2025-26, they’ll need Lewandowski to keep jabbing away against Father Time.

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