Most of the news surrounding Manchester United this week deals with Gary Neville and the comments he made questioning goalkeeper David De Gea’s ability or lack thereof following the Spaniard’s failed clearance that led to the decisive and equalizing goal from Clint Dempsey at White Hart Lane last weekend. It seems like much of United’s defensive problems are put squarely on the (feeble?) shoulders of De Gea and in my view, such allegations are just flat out misplaced. Is De Gea at least partly culpable for the 1-1 result? Sure, but he has done enough for me to believe his upside (it is imperative we remember his age and stage in which he plays on) far outweighs his current, correctable weaknesses.

The fact of the matter is that United have conceded 43 goals in all competitions this season, 30 in the Premier League alone. How many of those is DeGea solely responsible for? I’d venture to guess less than 10 percent. These are staggering numbers when you consider that over a sample size of the last 10 Premier League seasons, United’s largest goals against total was 37 (2010-11). The club is currently on pace to concede 50 goals in the league this season, outside of Newcastle last year, you have to drop to ninth place to get to the next team that conceded such a total. As a huge United fan with a flair for reality, I really think De Gea has become the easiest scapegoat for the fans and the media as to why United can’t get on a run of consistently stout defensive performances. What do I think is really to blame for United’s defensive struggles? A combination of three distinct yet intertwined factors.

A Consistent Back Four: If you look back over United’s defensive records during successful campaigns, they typically coincide with the fact that they were able to field the same “back four” in all of the most prominent matches. Sir Alex, the players themselves have routinely talked about how important this is to a team’s overall defensive record, but I would go one step further. It is also essential when you have made the decision to field a 22 year old goalkeeper who doesn’t have a firm grasp of the English language. Since GK is the most consistent position on the field, a constant mash up of the four men in front of him simply inhibits the entire defense’s ability to gel into an effective unit. This above all else this season is why I believe United having conceded like they have, not the goalkeeper, or the team’s mentality as a whole.

The Frailest Four: The most common reasons a consistent back four cannot be established is that since 2008-09, United have constantly been dealing with injuries to its defense. While I have very little to go on other than what I have seen and what I can see, but I lay most of the blame for this crisis that doesn’t seem to have an end at the feet of United’s Nutrition Program. Compare a full body picture of any United defender from the title winning 2006-07 season to one from this current season and you will see what I am talking about. Each member of the United defense is visibly smaller, meaning less muscle mass. Richard Hawkins, United’s “Head of Human Performance” has been with the team since 2008-09. Since then, every player on the team has gotten noticeably slimmer, with disappearing muscle mass. This is clearly a result of his goal, “…to create and maintain a physical framework for all United players from the first team to the under-9s.” Maybe you’ll scream me off of the website for this one, but a center-half should not look like a winger, but at United, they are built the same way. Perhaps this is why they’ve had a terrible record over the past three seasons of conceding from set pieces and certainly De Gea is perhaps the biggest victim of this. In comments to other articles on his performance, those optimistic of an improvement like myself cite his need to “grow stronger” or “fill out” – I contend that is simply impossible given where United have gone with their Nutrition/Fitness Programs. Maybe I am way off, but it seems as though thinner, quicker players are far more exposed to lower body injuries than those who are built with the goal of optimal balance of speed and strength.

Sir Alex and the Twilight of Two Center Halves: The combination of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at the center of the United defense has been one for the history books, and while they basically remain United’s best tandem there, natural circumstances such as their rising age and all that comes with it start digging away at the most important aspect of a solid defense, consistency. Ferdinand’s contract is expiring at the end of the season, Vidic’s current contract ends the next season. The last great pairing was Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister, Bruce left the club at the age of 35, Pallister at 32-the same ages Ferdinand and Vidic would be should Sir Alex Ferguson offers Ferdinand a one year deal. Pallister played just to more seasons (55 more games) for Middlesbrough before hanging up his boots, whilst Bruce managed to play three more seasons (82 more games) for Birmingham City and Sheffield United.

Sir Alex is going to have a crucial role to play in how this duo ends their United career, and I fear that he will go the way of Giggs and Scholes with at least Rio, if not Vidic too. The only way to get the next great partnership started is to let both men go at the end of 2014 if not sooner to allow Johnny Evans to develop a similarly strong partnership with either Smalling, Vidic, or the emerging Wooton.

Whatever your opinion, you have to agree that Manchester United’s terrible defensive record this season is like nothing we’ve seen before at United, and if not for Robin Van Persie, it would be getting the attention it deserves. Instead, the media and United fans look to blame the easiest culprit, a 22 year old goalkeeper with just one and a half Premier League seasons under his belt for problems that have become an institutional problem for United. Whatever or whomever you’d like to blame, or you agree with my analysis completely, you better agree that if United continue to concede 1.3 goals per game throughout the rest of the season, United fans will be left to analyze something far more depressing, consecutive seasons without an ounce of silverware.

If you haven’t heard or seen it by now, Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli kept his boot up and his studs exposed as he lunged at Arsenal’s Alex Song in a 1-0 defeat for City against Arsenal on Sunday that is sure to have ended City’s hopes of their first title in nearly 50 years.

I think it’s fair to say that most in the footballing world thought the FA would punish Balotelli harshly for his tackle on Song for many obvious reasons. First and foremost, everyone in the stadium knew what happened aside from the two most important people of course, the linesman and the referee (the terrible job of which most FA refs have done all season is a story for a later date).

Refs these days have their performances dissected by a governing body as well having the ability to self-assess through video review. While retrospective in-game punishment would be silly, it’s my view that the FA should be responsible for assessing punishment fitting the crime retrospectively following the match.

In a shocking display from the FA, Balotelli’s challenge on Song went unpunished because “at least one official saw the challenge in the game.” And by FA rule, “retrospective action can only be taken when none of the officials saw the challenge.” The FA cites this is normal and coherent with FIFA policy on “off the ball incidents.”

Had they retrospectively assessed Balotelli’s challenge to be worthy of a red-card, the Italian would have been served with a potential nine match ban. I think if you watched the game, and particularly his actions throughout the game, it reflected a mood in which you thought Balotelli was actually trying to be sent off.  The decision not to give this player even an additional game suspension just further damages the credibility The FA have with me on matters of disciplinary actions.

Balotelli lunges into the knee of an integral player for the opposing team, makes contact after the intent is visibly clear for all to see, and he gets off scot free? Meanwhile, the FA retrospectively charged Wayne Rooney with a 3 match ban for discernibly cursing (on camera) after single-handedly orchestrating a comeback from 2-0 down at the Boleyn Ground?

And as a United fan, just to prove to you that this particular point is club-neutral, Wayne Rooney should have retrospectively been punished for his lunge from behind at a QPR midfielder after the ball had gone. It was senseless and petulant (and know that I write that through gritted teeth because I have documented ammo that just about quantifies The FA’s near obvious hatred of United).

Until the FA gets a sensible, fair, and obviously universal disciplinary protocol, I expect more asinine decisions like this one to come from England’s governing body.

Stadium: Commerzbank Arena ( Eintracht Frankfurt)

Attendance: 45,100

Ticket-Price: Main stand – 23 Euro (32 US-Dollars/ 20 GBP) – reduction for students

Travelling to Frankfurt was very exhausting because it was snowing all the time and the highway was full of traffic jam. Normally it takes one and a half hour to reach Frankfurt from my university but on this day it took three hours.

Because of this, I took of my seat in the Commerzbank Arena at least fifth teen minutes after the match had started. I hoped desperately that my team would indemnify me for this horrible journey.

Frankfurt had to compensate the injury of Swiss midfielder Pirmin Schwegler, who was one of the best players in the team this season. Frankfurt was undefeated since six games.  Cologne must relinquish national-team striker Lucas Podolski, but played a lot better in the last two games against Dortmund and Wolfsburg than in the first half of the season.

In the first half the two teams showed their worst football, no highlights. In the second half cologne introduced its new midfielder Soran Tosic, who had played for Manchester United. He provides cologne much more offensive pressure and even Frankfurt shaped its game more offensively than in the first half. In the 59^th minute of the game Maniche scored the goal giving lead for cologne and my state of mind was worse.

Eintracht-coach Michael Skibbe introduced the two midfielders Ümit Korkmaz and Caio to increase the pressure. After the substitutions Frankfurt played much better and was the dominant team on the field. Defender Chris scored the equaliser in the 76^th minute for Frankfurt after a corner and I celebrated this very extensively. The equaliser gave my team the initial spark to go for winning the game. Frankfurt got several chances to score another goal but missed all of them. Cologne was only in the position to defend the draw.

In the 84^th minute my worst nightmare became true! After a cologne free-kick, Eintracht-defender Marco Russ deflected the ball in his own goal. 1-2 for cologne!! Frankfurt wasn’t able to turn the game after this shock.

This result made me very sad because Eintracht Frankfurt played better than cologne – but that’s football. I watched an uneventful first half but a very dramatic and powerful second half. Unfortunately my team didn’t bring the match to a favourable conclusion.

Immediately after Hamburg’s loss against Borussia Dortmund, the club officials announced the transfer of dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who played for the Spanish club Real Madrid. Van Nistelrooy singed a contract till june 2011.

Hamburg won the competition of signing Van Nistelrooy against Galatasaray Istanbul and several Premier-League teams, who would pay much more wage than the German club. Van Nistelrooy said that Hamburg was his first choice because of the club perspectives and his personal ambitions to play for a top team. The Premier-League teams like West Ham United had to deal with relegation this season.

With signing Van Nistelrooy Hamburg hopefully solves its injury problems, especially its striker problems. Paolo Guerrero is seriously injured with a cruciate ligament rupture; Markus Berg and Tunay Torun are talented but they aren’t a contributory factor for winning the title. Mladen Petric is currently the only player, who’s the condition to play at top level.

Because of that Hamburg needed to sign a striker to stay in touch with the top teams like Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Dortmund and Schalke.

 My Opinion:

It is a good move to sign a 33-year old striker, who only was a member of the reserve squad in the past months? – I think I would negate this for nearly every striker in this situation, but not for “Van the Man”……. I think his variety, his statistics and his character suggest that Hamburg made a good deal in signing him. He played very successful for all of his teams and was always appreciated by his teammates and fans.

Van Nistelrooy is a type of player Hamburg desperately needed. Hamburg need a player who scores goals inside the penalty box and this ability made Van Nistelrooy so famous in Manchester and all across Europe. The interaction with Eljero Elia, Piotr Trochowski and Malden Petric will be successful, if…….

Van Nistelrooy overcomes the aftermath of his knee injury form November 2008. This fact is maybe the dark horse of the deal – Will he be still in the right condition?? I HOPE SO!

American international Ricardo Anthony Clark has joined Eintracht on loan until the end of the season. The 26 year old defensive midfielder is the first US player ever to join the team. He played for Houston Dynamo in the MLS in 2009 and scored seven goals in 97 games.

Clark was signed to replace the injured defensive midfielder Zlatan Bajramovic, who suffered under a heel injury and will be out for several weeks. Eintracht coach Michael Skibbe said that Clark has to do some workouts and practice to be in good condition to play in the Bundesliga. Clark was scouted by Frankfurt at the match between the US-team and Denmark.

Skibbe attests Clark good dribbling-skills and that he’s a hard-running player, because of his conditional residue, causes by the break in the MLS, Clark will be a part of the team in 2 or 3 weeks. If Clark is able to answer Skibbe’s expectations, his contract will be extended for several years.

German newspapers rebrand Clark as a “bad boy” caused by his kick against the head of FC Dallas player Carlos Ruiz. Clark was banned for nine games. During the Fifa Confederations-Cup Clark was sent of after fouling Italian “bad boy” Gennaro Gattuso.

Despite all that coach Skibbe believes in Clark’s talent and that he will be a factor for the team. Houston Dynamo GM Oliver Luck congratulates Frankfurt for signing Clark and wishes his former player that he will reach his objectives. A few years ago Oliver Luck was GM of the American Football-Club Frankfurt Galaxy, which played in the same stadium like Eintracht Frankfurt.

Ricardo Anthony Clark was born on February 10, 1983 in Atlanta, Georgia. Frankfurt is his first team in Europe. A few months ago, Clark was focused by the Serie A-club Livorno Calcio, but the deal failed. US-coach Bob Bradley advises Clark to look for a club in the Bundesliga.

There were many signs in the past few months, which showed the upcoming ending of Torsten Frings career in the national team. Now after a conversation with national-team coach Joachim Löw, the national-team career of the defensive midfielder of Werder Bremen is definitely over!

Löw explained his fromer key player Frings, that he wouldn’t be a member of the team for the world cup 2010 in South Africa. Löw warranted his decision with Frings current personal capability and Löw’s planned rejuvenation of the team. Frings was sorely disappointed after the conversation and told german newspapers that he feels in good shape and the he will be still a boost for the team in South Africa.

Löw’s rejection is the end of several discrepancies between these two personalities. In autumn 2008 Frings criticises Löw for his behaviour towards the “veterans” in the national team like Ballack, Klose or himself. Frings said that Löw didn’t appreciate his merits for the team. After these statements Frings wasn’t appointed by Löw for the world cup qualifying-matches.

Instead of Frings, Löw called up Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Simon Rolfes, Sami Khedira and Thomas Hitzelsperger. Löw’s explanation for his call-up was always Frings average performances in the Bundesliga.

But many experts and journalists thought that there were interpersonal problems between the two men.

Frings played his last game for Germany in February 2009 against Norway (0:1 loss). Frings played as a starter for Germany at the world cup 2006 and the Euro 2008. He showed his best performances during the world cup 2006 in Germany, where he played the defensive midfield-position next to Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Bernd Schneider.

He’s still the captain of Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga.  

My Opinion:

Sure Frings is in the autumn of his career and he will never be in the constitution like he was during the world cup in 2006. Since two years he played not outstandingly for Werder, but his perfomances are still OK, and I think well enough for the national team.

I think Löw’s behaviour towards him is wrong!

– No call-up for average or bad performances??

Think of Miroslav Klose or Christoph Metzelder! Löw said during Klose’s crisis that Klose will still be one of his strikers because of his merits for the team. Metzelder was sitting at the stands in Madrid, but Löw appointed him, by saying that he is important for the team because of his experience.

I can´t see any difference between Frings and several other players, who showed some average performances in the past. Rolfes is still injured and Hitzelperger played badly for his club, I think that Frings is still a player for the national team because of his experience and his team play especially with Michael Ballack.

Löw decision was coined by his personal reluctance towards Frings! Hopefully it will be not a bad decision for the team!

Every German football-fan mourn national team keeper Robert Enke, who committed suicide yesterday evening on a railroad near Hannover.

Hours after his suicide, fans put candles and team-scarfs as a sign of mourning at the place where Enke spend his last minutes of his life. The whole Bundesliga, the DFB and the coach of the national team are shocked by this incident. Franz Beckenbauer, DFB-president Theo Zwanziger showed their mourning and expresses their condolence to Enke’s family. Enke is survived by his wife Theresa and his adopted daughter.

 The main question is at the moment: why?

Robert Enke’s career was coined by several injuries and setbacks in his personal life. His two year old daughter Lara died in 2006 after suffering under a cardiac disease. In the past he played for several clubs like Teneriffa, Barcelona, Fenerbahce with less success but found in Hannover 96 a club where he showed extraordinary performances.

During his career he suffered under several injuries. He missed nine games this season and the two important world cup qualification match against Russia. Despite all that national team coach Joachim Löw said that Enke will be his keeper for the world cup.

Off-the-field Enke was actively engaged in several social projects like animal welfare.

But we can only speculate about his reasons for his suicide. His personal reasons are only known by himself.

It’s doubtful that the national team will play against Chile on Saturday in cologne. Yesterday Enke’s former team the FC Barcelona showed their condolence with holding a moment of silence before the cup-match against Cultural Leonesa.

I personally feel very sad about Robert Enke’s suicide and offer my sincere condolences to his wife and his relatives. Robert we will never forget you!!

You can show your condolence on Robert Enke’s personal website: http://www.enke1.de/

“I’m god, I’m always right about everything”, this speech was told by Louis van Gaal in the dressing room in front of his players. The reality of course is a bit different; Bayern Munich must grapple with one of its biggest crisis in its club history.

At the beginning of the new season the Bayern officials praised their new coach Louis van Gaal as the most distinguished man in European football. Van Gaal’s experience and his coaching style should eradicate the “Klinsmann-experiment”. Three months later van Gaals balance is inferior to Jürgen Klinsmanns performance.

Six points behind the top team in the Bundesliga and after the embarrassing lost game against Girondins Bordeaux, the quarterfinals of the Champions League are very doubtful.

A few weeks ago the club brooke a record, a very sad record, the club didn’t stay at the top position at the standings since 500 days. The current situation isn’t satisfying for the club officials, who unveiled the best Bayern Munich team squad ever. But what are the reasons for the failure of this top team, who spent 75 million Euro for new players this season.

The following points reflect my opinion, the opinion of the German press and German critics:

1. Coach Louis van Gaal

His way of treating his players is doubtful. He used to coach in very autocratic and conservative style and he only accepts his own opinion. Sure as a coach you must have a steady arm on the tiller but you must be prepared for new or improvised solutions of some upcoming problems. A coach has to think of the mentality of his players and their current mental shape.

Van Gaal showed lack of competence on these fields in the past months and I think it’s a dangerous situation for a team, when a coach doesn’t think of the needs of his players and devotes oneself only to his way. Last week van Gaal presented his autobiography to public. In this biography he writes: “You can release me, and then? There’s no other coach with such a curriculum vitae than me!”

2. Player transfers

Bayern bought new players for nearly 75 million euro, that’s a record – but are all of these transfers successful and useful – of course not. Bayern Munich paid 30 million Euros for striker Mario Gomez, but till now he plays not successful and has to grapple with sitting on the reserve bank. Of course such a high transfer fee is a heavy load for a young player like Gomez, but he must accept the challenge.

In my opinion, Bayern Munich should have saved the money for a midfielder or a defender, instead of spending the money for Gomez. The strikers Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni, Ivica Olic and youngster Thomas Müller are good enough for the upcoming challenges in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Another failed transfer is the Timoschuk-deal. I can’t see any sense in buying another defensive midfielder, when you have Marc van Bommel and Andreas Ottl in your current squad. Timoschuk, who is talking about going back to Zenit St. Petersburg on March at the moment, was too expensive. Edson Braafheid and Daniel Pranjic aren’t in the condition to fill the right back position – Defender Breno (12 million Euros), no comment about his performance.

Bayern Munich failed to look after a solid right back in the preseason. This position is deserted since several seasons and the management didn’t react appropriately to solve this problem. Instead of this van Gaal sold Lucio to Inter, a player, who gave all his passion for the club.

3. Where’s the team-leader??

In the past years in every great Bayern Munich team, one player attires the team-leader role. Oliver Kahn, Stefan Effenberg, Lothar Matthäus or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge put their stamps on the team hierarchy and managed the difficult situations. They expedited their team to success, and they had successful times in the Bavarian city.

I guess at the moment no one in the squad is able to play such a dominant role, even Arien Robben or Frank Ribery.

But if you want to win a trophy you need such a type of player!

It was a short but very important message, when Bundesliga-club Hannover 96 addressed a petition to the DFL and DFB to abolish the “50+1-Rule”.

 The “50+1-Rule” implies that one person can only hold shares by the size of 49% of a club. Because of this, a prospect club owner has no majority vote and cannot conduct the club operations. The originally club members are in the position to overrule the owner of the biggest share; this condition isn’t attractive for persons like Roman Abramowitsch or Malcom Glazer.

Critics say that this rule interfere the development of the Bundesliga, because the clubs aren’t been able to buy the best players like Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka. The clubs must remain competitive in the Champion’s League to their opponents from the Premier League; hereto the DFL must abolish the rule for becoming more attractive for investors.

The fans and several officials deny an abolition of that rule. The fans want to avoid the commercialization of their clubs like Chelsea or Manchester United, because of losing ground and higher ticket prizes. In the last months several fan communities initiated some demonstrations to show their repulsion. The fans moan, that the Bundesliga will loose its identity and soul and will turn into a shady business.

A successful abolition needs a two-third majority at the conventions of the DFL (Bundesliga) and the DFB (The German Football Association). At the moment a majority seems to be unrealistic, because the most clubs follow the fan opinion about the abolition. Hannover 96 is till now the only club in the league, who wants some changes to exploit new financial resources. But former Bayern Munich manger Uli Hoeneß said after a loss in the Champion’s League last year, that in perpetuity the Bundesliga clubs have to think of some changes to win a European club-title.

Nowadays the “50+1-Rule” generates the main difference between the Bundesliga and the Premier League. The Premier League clubs have success in winning titles, the Bundesliga have the higher attendance, a better fan involvement and lower ticket prizes. The future will reveal, which is the right way of celebrating football.

It’s one of the worst situations in football business, when you have no more opportunities to resort to excuses, especially when you’re mainly responsible for the prosperity of your team.

Hertha BSC-manager Lucien Favre lived through this said situation at the press conference after Hertha’s 1:5 loss against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the six straight loss in a row. “I’ve nothing to explain – no comment,” said Favre at the press conference. One day after his admission, Favre was sacked by his club.

After Favre’s firing, the club has to think of some delicate questions: What did go wrong since the past season? What happened with this team, that played football at its best during the most of the past season and was red-hot favourite winning the title?

The current team isn’t comparable to the last year’s team, which united a still divided fan base in Berlin. The team’s performance popularized the club throughout the whole city, which inhabitants aren’t known for adoring football. But people flocked into the stadium to watch their new beloved team.

One reason for this said crash is personnel policy during the summer break. The team lost Josip Simunic, its defensive leader, the Croatian defender was the main factor of Hertha’s strong defensive performance last season. Furthermore the team lost its two best strikers Marko Pantelic and Andrej Voronin, who went back to Liverpool.

The transfers to balance the losses of these key players all failed. Either Artur Wichniarek or Adrian Ramos aren’t in the shape of taking over the positions of the former key players.

A further reason was the discrepancy about managing the club. The former team manger Dieter Hoeneß must recede from his position because of his controversy with other responsible persons in the club.

The new coach has to solve several problems and must be prepared for a difficult season.

The last match day contained the most electrifying derby in the Bundesliga – the so called “Revier-Derby”. It’s the matchup between Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund. The repulsion between these two teams is so strong, that the fans even use synonyms, when they talk about the opposing team.

Dortmund is called “Lüdenscheid-Nord” by the Schalke-supporters and the Borussia-fans only speak about “Herne-West”.

It was the 134th edition of the “Revier-Derby” between these teams at the Signal-Iduna-Park in Dortmund with 80.552 Spectators. Both teams needed an initial spark because of their moderate performances in the past games. Mainly Dortmund needed a win to stop its downward trend.

Both teams played cautiously and defensively in the first minutes of the match. Schalke benefited from their defensive play and gave Borussia little space to produce effective combinations.

But in the 26th minute of the match the Argentinean striker Lucas Barrios created the most contentious issue of the derby. The borussia striker hit the bar and the ball tripped of to the goal line – Goal or not??

– Referee Stark immediately called the players to go on and decided that the ball didn’t pass the goal line. This scene put every german football fan in mind of the 30th of July 1966 when Geoff Hurst scored an irregular goal for England in the world-cup final. In the Signal-Iduna-Park the Schalke-Fans could emphasize with the English in 1966 about being lucky, because the TV-pictures proof, that the ball passed the line.

Schalke went ahead by a goal in the 31st minute of the first half scored by the peruvian striker Jefferson Farfan. In the second half Dortmund added up the pressure but they weren’t able to score the equalizer. This performance showed the importance of former Borussia-striker Alexander Frei, who was transferred to Basel at the beginning of the season.

Schalke played very organized and gained the control of the match. Only in the 65th minute, when Borussia-player Kevin Großkreutz was fouled by Vasilios Pliatsikas in the penalty-area, Schalke gave up its defensive structure. Referee Stark didn’t recognize the foul didn’t blow the whistle.

It was the second time that Borussia Dortmund quarrelled with the referee’s decision.

In the last minute Gerald Asamoah, who was sent on for Halil Altintop, shot fractionally wide and missed the second goal for Schalke.

With this splendid victory Schalke is now looking forward to attack the top of the standings, whereas Borussia Dortmund has to think about its demands being one of the top-teams in the Bundesliga.

“Es müllert wieder!” – This famous slogan is only known by older german football fans, especially for those in Western Germany. It´s a tribute to the best German striker ever named Gerd Müller. Müller played fifteen years for the Bavarian top-club FC Bayern Munich and is holding several scoring records. He scored 68 goals in 65 games for the German national-team and 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga-games.

This remarkable figures show the extraordinary skills and ability of scoring goals. Every supporter of Bayern Munich talks very pathetically about this incomparable talent, sure that such a kind of player will only appears a few times in a century.

But this summer the fans maybe will get the opportunity to experience the birth of Müller´s appropriate successor. It´s the twenty year old home-grown talent Thomas Müller, who is trying to follow into the footsteps of Gerd Müller. There is no relationship between the two strikers, but they have several things in common.

Thomas Müller started his professional career last season with several short appearances under the former Bayern Munich manager Jürgen Klinsmann. This season the new dutch manager Luis van Gaal gave Müller the opportunity to play instead of the injured top-strikers Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni. Müller took the chance and scored two goals in the 5-1 blow against Borussia Dortmund and a few days later he scored a double-score at his champions-League debut against Maccabi Haifa.

His skills and his scoring-ability are very reminiscent of Gerd Müller´s style. His kicking skills, his moves in the penalty-area are very similar to the Bavarian striker icon. In opposition to Gerd, Thomas Müller has the ability to occupy several positions in the offensive midfield because of his great vision.

Thomas Müller is now one of the new fan favourites in the Allianz Arena and he dismissed the former top-strikers like Luca Toni to the reserve-squad. A few days ago Joachim Löw, manager of the german national-team, said to a radio announcer, that he is exited about the up-and-coming talent Thomas Müller and that he considers nominating Müller for the upcoming world cup in south-africa.

Thomas Müller is on the best way to achieve iconic status throughout the German football-scene. It looks like that the fans will farm the famous slogan in the future out to either Müllers.