Wow... Barca is in a bit of a slump right now, huh?
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Perhaps, but not everyone wants to take one all the time. Freaking Neuer took one and scored, shockingly.
Just proves my initial point: Neuer got stones. He is a pillar of the team thus he takes responsibility when the situation demands him to.
If he's been getting crap in Deutschland for years, why'd Bayern buy him, because he scores? He scores in meaningless games. If you had Cavani or RVP or someone like that, you might've killed us like 5-0 in the Final.
Gomez was a key player at VfB Stuttgart who led them to the Bundesliga Championship in 2007. That year he was also elected “Germany’s Footballer of the Year”. He was a new and uprising German striker, who built up quite a bit of reputation as he’d been constantly amongst the top scoring players for 3 consecutive seasons.
Hoeneß, who was back then our general manager, had the silly habit of investing huge sums of money for striker whenever the club was struggling. (All our big transfers had basically been strikers, craploads of them: Claudio Pizarro [01/02], Roy Makaay [03/04], Lukas Podolski [06/07], Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni [07/08], and finally Mario Gomez [09/10]) Another silly habit was the act of strategically weakening their strongest competitors by snatching away their key players. And since three is the charm: third silly habit had always been the desire to create “FC Germany”, i.e. having as many German national players as possible in the team.
That was reason enough for Hoeneß and Co. to sign Gomez, disregarding simple yet obvious facts like play style, compatibility of tactics and system and whatnot. (i.e. Stuttgart was a notorious counterattacking side back then; Bayern on the other hand usually has to take the initiative as the opposing side parks the bus.)
All of this led to some good laughs when Louis van Gaal took over as manager here. He was like: “I don’t want that kind of striker, I don’t see him fit for my style of football, thus I won’t cap him. As of now, he’s striker option no.4!”
But Hoeneß and Co. had just spent +30 Millions on Gomez, making him the most expensive transfer in the history of German football at that time. So they really wanted their investment to bear some fruit… xD
Bayern is already a more solid, complete side than Barca, but Bayern lacks an explosive striker.'
As long as we haven’t won that UCL title we won’t dare calling us “greatest team”. It’s nice to hear that’s how you see it.
If I had a say in the management of the club I’d go for a versatile, technically strong striker and a dynamic attacking midfielder (a “no. 10”). Thinkable candidates would be Jovetić, Suárez or maybe even Neymar for the first category, and Özil, Götze or Eriksen for the second.
The one thing about Lahm is that he's a right footed LB, which is kind of odd, although he can play as a RB. Still, he is one of the best fullbacks in the world.
Oh, you must have missed the last switch. Lahm hasn’t been playing as an inverted fullback for the last two seasons, ever since Alaba’s tremendous talent as LB was discovered. : )
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As for the quarterfinal of the German domestic cup:
THAT is football. Last season’s tragic figure and whipping boy Arjen Robben becomes the match winner, who delivers the death blow to the opponent with a picture book goal…
It’s such a pleasure to watch that guy. I’m infinitely proud and grateful he’s part of this club.
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