Mane no Lewandowski replacement, says Dortmund legend

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 30 Mar 2023 16:50 BST
• 3 min read

Losing Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona last summer was Bayern Munich's 'biggest problem' according to Borussia Dortmund club legend Paul Lambert, with Sadio Mane not as effective up front.

Lewandowski had been Bayern's top scorer for eight seasons running after joining them on a free transfer from Dortmund in 2014, but he forced a move to Barca last summer, eventually leaving in a €50 million deal.

Whilst Bayern were disappointed to lose a player who had scored 344 goals in 375 games for them, there had been significant excitement when they acquired Mane from Liverpool for €41m earlier that summer.

READ: 'Liverpool let the wrong one go' - Ferdinand blames transfer for Reds' downfall

But Mane had only mustered six goals in 18 Bundesliga games before injury, and with Bayern slipping behind Dortmund in the Bundesliga table ahead of Saturday's meeting in Der Klassiker, the club sacked Julian Nagelsmann, replacing him with recently departed Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.

Bayern's biggest problem

"I think Bayern's biggest problem was when they lost Lewandowski," Lambert, a Champions League winner with BVB in 1997, told FootballTransfers. "How do you replace somebody who's scoring 50 goals a season? That's a phenomenal rate of goalscoring. You're talking high-level football there."

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has picked up the goalscoring mantle at Bayern, and is this season's 17-goal top scorer. Lambert managed the Cameroon striker at Stoke, and thinks he's a better option than Mane up front.

READ: We have Choupo-Moting! Bayern dismiss 'nonsense' Kane transfer

"Choupo's a really talented footballer," he said. "I had him at Stoke, albeit he was injured quite a bit for us at that time but he's a nice lad, and his goalscoring since he's been a centre-forward at Bayern's been very, very good.

"The only other thing you could do is to play Mane up front, but Mane, I think, is better coming in off the wide areas, so has [Tuchel] got too many options? I don't think he's got too many options other than playing Choupo through the middle."

Asked what that might mean for Saturday's Klassiker, Lambert wasn't convinced that Tuchel can turn things around for Bayern against one of his former employers in Dortmund.

"Bayern have got the Tuchel effect, whether that plays into their hands, I don't know," he said. "Nagelsmann being sacked in this moment is a strange one but Dortmund in this moment with these players, in the place they're in at the moment, I think can definitely get a good result here."