"His passing is excellent, and his attitude is also first-class. "He was the player we have been looking for all summer, and it was a great piece of business when we got Javi Martinez to sign for Bayern," coach Heynckes said. Martinez will now be expected to give Bayern the final push they need to get over the Champions League finish line. Spirited, determined, intelligent and with strong views about the game, his diminutive stature and boyish looks ensure that he does not quite appear to fit the bill of a skipper, but scratch the surface and you will find a winner.Īt home on either flank, Lahm may have his weaknesses defensively, but he more than compensates with his brilliant work going forward, his dribbling skills and clever combination play.Įvidence that holding midfielders do not come cheap in the current transfer market arrived as Bayern handed Athletic Bilbao more than £30 million to secure the services of this gifted performer. While not a clenched-fist rabble-rouser on the pitch, the Germany full back is an outstanding leader by example. ![]() If reports are to be believed, he doesn't see eye to eye with teammate Robben, but they are generally far enough away from each other on the pitch for that not to be a major problem. Back in his homeland, Ribery finds himself regularly slammed for a lack of consistency and poor attitude, yet deep in the heart of Bavaria, his home for the past five years, he is nothing less than an icon, a package of extravagant skills considered to be worth every penny of the £22.7 million Bayern paid Olympique Marseille for him.Īlthough far from his best in the 2012 Champions League final, he more often than not is the man to fire Bayern into attacking life and, taken as a whole, last season was his most productive for the club, scoring and making goals with aplomb. If that man is to be Toni Kroos, strategy and distribution is the order of the day, while Thomas Muller or new Swiss signing Xherdan Shaqiri will bring incisiveness and verve.įew players polarise opinion as much as this 29-year-old French wing wizard. The identity of the central figure in the attacking midfield triumvirate gives a clue to Bayern's intentions. Star wide men Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery tend to cut in too often and, as exemplified in last term's Champions League final loss, Bayern can become rather static and predictable out wide. This season, one of Heynckes' top priorities will be to make better use of the wings, to supply more crosses. With deep-lying midfield general Bastian Schweinsteiger at the controls alongside new signing Javi Martinez, Bayern generally are excellent in possession, moving the ball around slickly before upping the tempo in and around the danger zone. THE GAME PLAN: No matter if Heynckes uses his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation or goes with an alternative 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, the match-day methodology of "Uncle Jupp" is all about finding the right balance between a compact, teak-tough defensive operation and the attacking enterprise of the many world-class individuals at his disposal. This is scheduled to be his last season on the Bayern bridge. In his third spell at the Bayern helm, he knows every nook and cranny at the club and, despite the heartbreak of last term, has the total backing of boardroom power brokers, president Uli Hoeness and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.Ī prolific goal scorer in the 1970s with Borussia Monchengladbach - with whom he won no fewer than five Bundesliga titles and the 1975 UEFA Cup - and the West German national team, he has coached all over Europe: in Germany with Gladbach, Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke and Leverkusen Spanish outfits Real Madrid (with whom he won the European Cup in 1998), Athletic Bilbao and Tenerife and Portuguese giants Benfica. This 67-year-old boss may be in the twilight of his career, but remains an intensely ambitious leader and meticulous training-ground taskmaster. Yet for all those glory-filled nights, Bayern have had to endure some Champions League nightmares too, notably the Manchester United late show that deprived them of the 1999 crown and the shootout defeat to Chelsea in last season's final at their Allianz Arena home. They reclaimed the trophy again 25 years later, beating Valencia on penalties in the 2001 final in Milan. THE LEGEND: Bayern first established themselves as a genuine Euro powerhouse in the mid-1970s, when a team built around the considerable talents of libero Franz Beckenbauer, centre forward Gerd Muller and keeper Sepp Maier won three consecutive European Cups in 1974, 19. ![]() Nicknames: FCB, the Bavarians, FC Hollywood, Die Roten Bayern Munich suffered penalty shootout misery in last season's final. Group F: Bayern Munich | Valencia | Lille | BATE Borisov
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