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Lewy: As a striker you have to be selfish; Everyone can learn from Guardiola

  /  autty

The first place to start is with the iPad and a beaming smile. Robert Lewandowski is sitting in a studio at Bayern Munich's training ground when he is asked to go back in time with the help of a two-minute video clip.

It is not something Europe's premier No 9 expected but, quickly, he comes to life.

The footage, from April 2013, is of him waging a one-man war against Real Madrid for Borussia Dortmund, when he scored four goals in a Champions League semi-final.

'Ah!' he says, his eyes fixed on the screen. 'I'm very proud of this game! When you do something like that to Real, you should be very proud.

'I remember I felt so good, so very strong. The third goal (a stunning finish after changing his feet) is my favourite. I just wanted to do what I do best. Score.'

He has done that all his life. Given the exploits of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it perhaps doesn't get appreciated what a machine Lewandowski has been during their era. His career tally currently stands at 408 and Chelsea, next week in the Champions League last 16, are firmly in his sights.

Lewandowski is very much the humble superstar and the hour we spend together is informative to the point of being an education. Sportsmail first spent time with the Pole three years ago and the impression he made that is reinforced here.

When players reach his level of fame and adulation, it can distort their characters and ensure they are surrounded by entourages but Lewandowski – who puts his remarkable athletic physique down to eating steak for breakfast and saying no to cake – is refreshingly down to earth.

He arrives for our meeting alone and even though he speaks fluent English, feels the need to apologise for the quality of his language. He clearly has a dry sense of humour, too, as he says with a telling wink at one point: 'maybe it will improve when I come to the Premier League!'

There are more smiles as he recounts in detail how he ended up fleecing Klopp as he embraced the challenge of fulfilling his talent; training sessions became expensive for the manager when the penny dropped on what Lewandowski could achieve.

'We bet that if I score 10 goals then Jurgen gives me 50 euros,' he says. 'I remember the first training sessions, I score three or four. Then after five, six, seven sessions I score seven or eight. After three months? I score in every training session, more like 10.

'After a few weeks Jurgen said: "No more! It's too much for me. I don't want to pay you any more!" That was part of my mentality to be focused on training session. That was very helpful for me. And good in another way! Before I met Jurgen, I had a lot of problems with my body language.

'He told me sometimes he didn't know if I was angry or happy. It didn't matter what was happening, my body language was the same. Jurgen said: "Sometimes you have to be angry! sometimes your actions should be more expressive!" I had to change. That was under Jurgen.'

The bond those have is obvious but so is the respect for Pep Guardiola. If Klopp helped make Lewandowski an assassin, Manchester City's manager showed him how to administer the kill in the most elegant – but relentless – way.

The first year Lewandowski worked with Guardiola, he scored 25 times. Since then, his tallies have been 42, 43, 41, 40 and he is already at 36 for this campaign. It is freakish consistency, perhaps not fully appreciated, but it shows why comparisons with Gerd Muller are not out of place.

'Everyone can learn from Pep,' he states. 'Not only the tactics but how to be a better player on the pitch and how to be more clear with situations, to know what's happening – where you should go, where you should run. They are different but if you made a mix from both, it would be perfection.'

And perfection is something Lewandowski continues to pursue. His wife is a nutritionist but her influence goes beyond food; she has introduced him to professors who have given him exercises to train his mind, anything that will give him a fractional advantage in the heat of the moment.

These are the difference that separate the great from the good. Bayern will one day have to think about replacing a man who signed a long-term contract last summer but he is doing all he can to ensure that is some way off.

'What you are doing in your preparations is so important,' he says. 'Football now, everyone knows a lot about your tactics, how you move with and without the ball.

'That is why you have to try to find something that can help you. So you train your brain to be focused, like in school.

'I do exercises on a computer. I focus. I don't not look at my phone, to see what's going on.

'Mental focus has to be on a high level. The brain gets information (from what you do before a game) that something important is coming. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. I want to be better.'

Part of Lewandowski’s “ritual”, he realised, is to always put his left boot on first. “You can play very good; play very well. You can make a pass; you make a cross. But if you want to score almost every game you have to change your mentality. Maybe 70 per cent is from your head and not your skills. Why? That is why not everyone can play like a striker... you have to be selfish.

"For me, especially, I know I have to think about the team. If you win, the team wins – not you. If you lose, the team loses. Sometimes, my selfishness is important for the team. I am trying to score the goal, trying to help us win.”