🌡 Hot Take: Robert Lewandowski is not the Bundesliga's best striker | OneFootball

The Bundesliga title may not be the only throne that Bayern Munich cede to RB Leipzig this season.

For over half a decade, not only have they been the kings of German football but Robert Lewandowski has been the jewel in their striking crown.

But both Bayern’s place as Germany’s best and his place as the division’s hottest marksman are now under threat from the unpopular upstarts in Saxony and their man, Timo Werner.

The league championship is still up for grabs but the race to take home the Torjägerkanone is in line to be wrested away from Bavaria, going the way of Leipzig’s hungry young lion.

The levels that Lewandowski is hitting for a 31-year-old are staggering but shouldn’t overshadow the man who is now even better.

You might think that the Pole’s Bundesliga ratio of 80-minutes-per-goal this season is good (it is) but it is only enough for second place in that ranking.

Top of the pile is Werner, who is averaging a goal every 76 minutes in what really has been a coming-of-age campaign for the Germany international.

We haven’t even reached the end of January and Werner is already just one league goal shy of equalling his tally of 21 in all competitions last season as well as his own personal Bundesliga record of 21, which came in 2016/17.

He has evolved from the one-dimensional Stuttgart speedster he was as a teenager, into one of the world’s most ruthless finishers anywhere around the penalty area.

Of his 24 strikes in all competitions this season, only three have came from outside the penalty area, with a further three coming inside the six-yard box.

Not that he has lost any of that blistering pace, though. That is another part of the package that makes him not just the Bundesliga’s best but one of the most complete strikers in the game.

No player in the Bundesliga has contributed to more goals this season than Werner’s 26 (2o goals, six assists) in 18 games – yet another category he is edging out Lewandowski in over the course of the campaign.

That selflessness is a part of his game that the forward doesn’t get enough credit for and it is something that he takes every bit as seriously as his goalscoring responsibilities.

Yet goals, as he acknowledged, remain his bread and butter and, over the last 18 months, he is even outperforming what has been expected of him in front of goal – particularly when compared to Lewandowski.

During that span, Lewandowski has an xG (expected goals) of 45 and stands on 42, which is still an incredibly efficient return.

By comparison though, Werner’s xG for the same time frame is 29.5 but he has registered 36 goals.

This season, he also became the youngest player ever to reach 200 Bundesliga appearances, meaning taking Lewy’s crown may just be the beginning.

Gerd Müller and co, he’s coming for you.