Julian Nagelsmann backed the striker to build on his impressive start to life at Barcelona and expressed his desire to see Robert Lewandowski receive a warm welcome upon his return to Bayern Munich.
Before moving to Camp Nou in July, Lewandowski spent eight years with the Bavarian powerhouses and amassed 238 Bundesliga goals during that time. Since then, he has had a brilliant debut season for Barcelona.
In his first five LaLiga games, the Polish international has six goals.
With a hat-trick in last week’s 5-1 Champions League thrashing of Viktoria Plzen, he turned on the style.
For Tuesday’s crucial Champions League match, Lewandowski will make a quick trip back to Munich with his new team.
Nagelsmann feels that despite the less than cordial manner of his departure, he deserves a warm welcome.
Nagelsmann said:
“If I see him before [the game] then I’m certainly going to give him my hand.
“I’m not sure if I’ll see him beforehand, usually I don’t.
“I’m looking forward to our fans welcoming him back.
“When a player has been so vital for the team over the years, I think it’s essential.
“He was an important part of the Bayern family. We had a personal exchange a couple of weeks back, not regarding football. I am looking forward to seeing him again.”
Asked about Lewandowski’s start to life in Spain, Nagelsmann added:
“I think he can still continue to play at that level for a couple of years, I’m not sure how many goals he can score this season, I’m no genie.
“I think it will be plenty. He has scored 40 plus usually, so I think he can do that in the Spanish league as well.
“I’m not sure if he’s the most dangerous, but he’s undoubtedly one of their most dangerous players, the one that can score the most goals. They have great solutions there.
“Lewandowski always has great runs and positions inside the box. He’s the most dangerous in front of goal, but if he doesn’t get a lot of balls, it’s difficult [for him].”
Nagelsmann is well aware of Lewandowski’s abilities and thinks Dayot Upamecano’s prior encounters with him could help Bayern.
He was Lewandowski’s coach when he reached a half-century of goals across all competitions last season.
Nagelsmann added:
“I have plenty of positions that I’m already pretty clear on.
“Upamecano has memories of playing against Lewandowski, back when he was at RB Leipzig. He knows him from our practice as well.”
At the Allianz Arena, Upamecano will start, but Leon Goretzka won’t, as Nagelsmann wants to ease the midfielder back into action after his injury layoff.
“The position next to Joshua [Kimmich] is going to be [Marcel] Sabitzer,” Nagelsmann said.
“I’ve had a chat with Leon, it was my decision to keep him on [against Stuttgart on Saturday]. We decided to keep him on for 94 minutes. That was a long time for him after the injury. He reacted well to it and is feeling good.
“Him having to play from the start is not going to happen, we need him for the whole season and don’t want to give him too many minutes at the start.”
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