Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski is back, in all of his greatness

If there was any doubt that Robert Lewandowski was back, his first goal against Eintracht Frankfurt this past weekend should have put an end to that notion. He went on to score another as Bayern Munich ran out 3-0 winners against the opposition, hitting the woodwork numerous times as well.

Pep Guardiola only has 13 senior players, including a substitute goalkeeper - Pepe Reina, at his disposal for the Champions League match against Porto. It's a legitimate disaster. The manager has even gone to say that he's never seen such a situation like this before, labelling the debacle as a crisis. One would be threatened to feel sympathy for the Catalan manager if those 13 players couldn't routinely outclass any other squad in the world.

Out of those handful of players, Philipp Lahm and Thiago Alcantara are returning from injury. But Lewandowski could also be seen as being recently healed himself. Or at least, reborn. The striker had been one of the most dangerous in his position for the past three years. He unforgettably made mockeries of German defences as the spear point of a ransacking Borussia Dortmund team. Then when his contract expired the worst kept secret of last year was confirmed as he made a move to the Bayern Munich Goliath.

It looked like a match deviously made in heaven. Lewandowski is stunningly composed on the ball, can pressure defenders relentlessly, can pass and scores so effortlessly that it borders on the ridiculous. And at Bayern, in Pep Guardiola, was a manager who salivated at these qualities in players. But then he began to struggle, scoring just once in his first four Bundesliga appearances for Bayern.

It's one thing to see the Guardiola system as a fan and an entirely different thing to be a participant. The perpetual passing drills, the head-turning amount of movement, the fantastical formations and positional changes. It's the type of system that an ambitious player dreams of being a part of. And the Bayern machine is beautiful at full flow, but being a cog in Guardiola's Hydra can be utterly confusing and emotionally draining.

The powerful Pole admitted before the winter break that he had begun to doubt himself. "I still had to get used to things early on. It was not easy to understand what Pep Guardiola wanted. Pep took his time to explain me his philosophy, though. He told me that my movement was good and that I would eventually start scoring again...I was worried after the first four or five games, though. I hardly got any chances and that was the worst bit. I started doubting myself."

He then predicted that he would score more after the winter break, and to his credit, Guardiola also attested to this belief. And voila, they were both prophetic. Since the turn of the year, the striker has gone on to score 10 goals in all competition, 20 goals in 39 games total, with his 16 league goals coming only third behind Arjen 'Benjamin Button' Robben and Frankfurt's Alexander Meier.

One of those goals was the match-winner against his old Dortmund club as well. It's a much welcome return to form for a player whose departure was entertained by Bayern fans in the first half of the season.

No longer is he confused about his role in the system. He doesn't walk off shaking his head in disappointment as he's subbed off for Mario Goetze much these days. The hands on the head in disbelief, the raised arms when he loses the ball, gone, all gone. Lewandsowski was always too talented and too intelligent to fail. He's as much of a hard-worker as any other player and that meant that the Bayern puzzle would eventually reveal itself to him.

Now he's here in all of his greatness. Not only scoring, but scoring his own brand of goals, the outrageous type. Far from the Thomas Mueller standard. The smile is back and the voracious galloping of his horse-like legs and the smothering first touch of his right foot have followed.

Against Porto, Guardiola will need the Polish striker to be at his best once again. The manager may not have many players available, but in the returning and already available ones, Lewandowski in particular has all the quality to blow Porto’s defence out of the water. Well, that is if he doesn't go down with an injury as well.