Top national team coaches usually rely on a spine of players from a particular club side to mastermind victory. Franz Beckenbauer had a Bayern Munich spine, or block, as its referred to in some places, to call upon as he masterminded Germany’s victory at the 1990 World Cup. Klaus Augenthaler, Stefan Reuter, Andreas Brehme, Jurgen Klinsmann and captain Lothar Matthaus were all current or former Bayern players as Beckenbauer became the first man in football history to lift the World Cup both as skipper and manager.
Beckenbauer had absorbed lessons from his playing career to perfection. He had skippered the Bavarian giants to three consecutive European Cup triumphs between 1974-76, then seen the club’s spine – Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Uli Hoeness, Sepp Maier and Gerd Muller – provide the platform for Die Mannschaft’s World Cup victory in 1974.
Spain boss Vicente del Bosque almost allowed his La Roja side to pick itself by starting seven Barcelona players and four Real Madrid counterparts as the Iberians followed up the 2008 European championship with World Cup glory in South Africa 2010 and success at Euro 2012. Barca stars Carlos Puyol, Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Andreas Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas all featured prominently in Spain’s golden era.
Current Spain manager Luis Enrique is using a similar template in trying to revive La Roja’s lost glory. Six Barcelona players – Busquets, Pedri Gonzalez, Pablo Martin Gavira ‘Gavi’, Ferran Torres, Alejandro Balde and Jordi Alba featured as Spain obliterated Costa Rica 7-0 in the most one sided World Cup group stage victory since Oleg Salenko’s notched five in Russia’s 6-1 pummeling of Cameroon at USA 94.
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At the 2006 World Cup, Marcelo Lippi had relied upon the experienced Juventus brigade of Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chellini, Andrea Barzagli, Andrea Pirlo, Mauro Camoranesi, Pipo Inzaghi and Alessandro del Piero to plot Azzuri’s success. It therefore goes without saying that Germany boss Hans Deiter Flick can turnaround his team’s fortunes if he better utilises the spine of seven Bayern Munich players when Die Mannschaft confronts Spain and Costa Rica in it’s final two group encounters.
Five Bayern stars – Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnarby and Thomas Muller started in the Japan debacle. The dilemma Flick faces will be how to accommodate Leroy Sane when he returns from injury or whether the four-time world champions can gain traction by replicating the Bavarians double pivot of Leon Goretzka and Kimmich to give Ilkay Gundogan license to create further up the pitch. Utilising veteran Muller as a super sub would certainly make sense.
