Lewandowski linked up with Guardiola during two seasons at Bayern Munich as the pair won two Bundesliga titles and a DFB-Pokal together.
Speaking in a brand new BBC documentary, ‘Pep Guardiola: Chasing Perfection’, Lewandowski lifted the lid on the lessons he learned under the Catalan.
“He is a genius, maybe sometimes a crazy genius,” said the Polish ace.
“I remember exactly one conversation with him, he said: ‘I can’t help you in the box when you have the ball because you know better than me but I can help you how to bring the ball to the box’. That to me was the genius.
“In two years with Pep I learned more than before in many years.
“Everything he talked made sense and in the end you listened to him because you know he’s right.”
Another Bayern star in the Guardiola era, which saw three Bundesliga, two DFB-Pokal, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup won, was goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Regarded as one of the greatest keepers in the history of the game, Neuer described Guardiola as ‘football obsessed’ during their time together.
It was no easy task for Guardiola to take over the Treble-winners, who had won Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League the season before his arrival.
But, as Neuer explains, after a bedding-in period with some strong words for the squad, the Reds went on to embrace and exhibit the manager’s slick and striking style of play.
“We’d just won the Treble, the biggest success in Bayern’s history. He had to keep the success coming,” added Neuer.
“And that wasn’t an easy task. Sometimes he stopped and sent us to the changing room. He got the hump and said: ‘If you don’t want to learn it then you won’t’. That’s how he educated us.
“The smallest thing was important to him so that we could implement what he wanted.
“Many teams often played very defensively. They’d rather park two buses at the back and we played around them trying to find solutions.
“His philosophy was just so good, we realised that when we implemented it we have a 90% chance to win.
“Pep gave us a lot of motivation in every single game. If we played in the first cup round against a Third Division team it was like to play a cup final.”
