The number of assists depends primarily on whether the striker is withdrawn or rather plays as a classic number nine, i.e. advanced. If Lewandowski receives instructions from Flick not to withdraw, the number of assists decreases. When Xavi was the coach, there was a time when he told Lewandowski to withdraw, then he played more balls, had more contacts and therefore assists. Note that Lewandowski currently has few contacts with the ball and these are usually contacts outside the penalty area - if his goal/assist statistics were to be better, then practically 1 in 8 of his contacts would have to end in a goal or assist. This season, the statistics do not work in his favor, because he had many key passes that his partners did not use or were whistled offside.
