Robert Lewandowski insists that he expected a difficult first season at Barcelona because building requires time.
The Polish striker arrived at Camp Nou from Bayern Munich in the summer and quickly established himself as Barcelona’s main scorer, but he couldn’t prevent Xavi’s side from exiting the Champions League in the group stage.
Robert Lewandowski has scored 18 goals in 17 games for Barcelona since joining from Bayern Munich. Lewandowski says he didn’t expect his debut season with Barcelona to be an instant success because the club needed to rebuild.
Barcelona will play in the Europa League for the second year in a row after a guaranteed third-place finish in a group that includes Barcelona and Inter Milan.
Their exit from the Champions League at the group stage was confirmed last week after they lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich.
“We are evolving. I did not expect to arrive and that everything would go well in the first season,” the 34-year-old told La Vanguardia.
“I insist, it is a process that requires time and patience.”
“Obviously I’m not happy, Barcelona should be in the last 16. Before coming to Barcelona I was already aware that the first season could be harder than it should be,” said Lewandowski.
“We are in a process of reconstruction that needs time, we have to be more patient.”
“We have to face some situations with more intelligence, in football sometimes you have to know how to win and not how to play to win, and that’s what has happened to us. But these things make us stronger for the future.”
“With everything that Barca have suffered in recent years, you cannot expect everything to change in a month. It needs time and it will no doubt improve.”
