Striker Depth Is Bayern Munich’s Biggest Area of Concern Ahead of 2016/17 Season

For the last two years, Bayern Munich have been blessed with one of the world’s finest strikers: Robert Lewandowski. Since joining the German giants from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2014, the Poland international has come up aces again and again.

Lewandowski took a little time to find his feet, but he was at his best early in the second half of his first season at the Allianz Arena.

Last season was perhaps his best overall as a professional footballer: He scored 42 goals in all competitions, including a whopping 30 in the Bundesliga and nine in the Champions League. The former was enough to see him crowned top scorer of the German league at season’s end.

Of all the strikers in world football right now, only Luis Suarez can truly compare to Lewandowski.

For any club, replacing Lewandowski would be extremely difficult. He is, after all, a world-class player of unique qualities. Yet for Bayern, the hypothetical task would be even more challenging than for most. There just isn’t much behind him in terms of depth.

Previously, Bayern had an aging but still reliable Claudio Pizarro to back up Lewandowski. And before the Polish striker moved to Munich, Bayern had both Mario Mandzukic and Mario Gomez as options for the role of striker.

But last season, Bayern had no backup for Lewandowski. And it appears they will enter the 2016-17 campaign without a backup striker, with Carlo Ancelotti having pledged not to sign another attacking player this summer after the sale of Mario Gotze to Dortmund and an injury to Arjen Robben, per ESPN’s Raphael Honigstein.

As it stands, Bayern’s depth at striker is limited to Julian Green and Thomas Muller behind Lewandowski. The latter has always been a reliable scorer overall in his career, but his …

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