Lewandowski is not effective for Barcelona in Europe

The Polish striker displays his goalscoring talent in LaLiga, but his goals are not decisive in continental competitions.

Joan Laporta signed Robert Lewandowski with the aim of boosting and strengthening Barcelona's competitiveness, especially in Europe, and helping Xavi to build a winning team.

The Polish international is showing an extraordinary level of performance in LaLiga Santander, where he is the current leading scorer, but in continental tournaments he has not made the difference, and the Catalan side have paid dearly for it.

The former Bayern Munich player has scored six goals in Europe: five in the Champions League and one in the Europa League. However, none of these strikes have been decisive.

Barcelona beat the Viktoria Plzen 5-1 with Lewandowski's hat-trick, meanwhile against Inter he scored a brace but the score was a 3-3 draw and the result virtually eliminated the Blaugrana from the Champions League.

His penalty against Manchester United did not help the team to stay alive in the Europa League either as Los Cules' continental campaign came to an abrupt end in February.

Last summer, Barcelona closed the deal with Bayern for 45 million euros plus another five million in variables. He was the big signing for the team this season and the center forward was considered as the necessary asset to have options to fight for a continental title.

He was the great hope of Joan Laporta, and also of Xavi. But this has not been enough. His contributions in Europe are not making a difference in the same way they are back in Spain.

Xavi wants more cohesion with Lewandowski and his teammates

In total, Lewandowski has scored a remarkable 25 goals this season, most of them in LaLiga, where he is the Pichichi with 15 goals. yet his overall performance has suffered.

In the last five games, he has only scored twice: Thursday's goal against United at Old Trafford and the one against Cadiz at Camp Nou.

Xavi is nonetheless happy with his performances, although he also believes he is going through a bit of a slump.

"He was extraordinary and now maybe he's a bit lower, but he's not bad. Maybe he needs to be used more," Xavi declared.