For four years we have been treated to something special. It was as though their football was from another planet. It was something we hadn’t seen before: smaller, seemingly frail footballers with brilliant technical ability passing the ball around teams.
They had full-backs playing as wingers and they didn’t have conventional centre-backs. They would press their opponents in an incredible way and regularly have 75 per cent of the possession against top sides. It changed the way we thought about football.
But having sat in the Nou Camp and watched Bayern Munich complete a staggering 7-0 aggregate victory over Barcelona, I could almost hear the doyens of English coaching, the likes of Don Howe, sighing in relief and saying: ‘Thank goodness for that! Normality has resumed.’
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Because I watched a Bayern side — playing a classic 4-4-1-1 formation straight out of the old school English coaching manual — dismantle Barcelona. There were no diamond systems, no Christmas trees and it wasn’t a 4-2-3-1. I repeat: it wasn’t a 4-2-3-1.
This wasn’t clever inventive players working in between the lines. This was a conventionally coached team made up of two banks of four, with the second striker dropping into midfield at times and the first striker working hard up top.
Bayern gave as good a performance as you could want to see from a coaching perspective. You would have to say they allied that with some superb skill and excellent technical players. But tactically they were flawless. To get that system to work correctly, the distances between the four defenders have to be exactly right. And the four defenders and the four midfielders have to work in two lines of four, staying close to each other.
The balance between the deeper-lying striker, in this case Thomas Muller, who sits in front of the two central midfielders, and the lead striker, who was Mario Mandzukic, has to be precisely right.
The relationship between the wingers and their full-backs has to be telepathic. The two wingers have to be incredibly disciplined, playing deep alongside their central midfielders when the team haven’t got the ball and then tucking into a more central area when the ball moves to the opposite side of the pitch.
In fact, having played against Arjen Robben and watched him a lot, I would say it might have been one of the greatest achievements of Jupp Heynckes, the Bayern Munich coach, to get Robben to track back and defend like that.
It was an extraordinary performance from Bayern and at the heart of it were two players, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez, who produced the most outstanding performance from a central midfield pair that I’ve seen for years.
Incredible partnership: Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez put on a magnificent show in midfieldSchweinsteiger was pressing from the front one minute then back in midfield the next. The way in which when one pressed and the other came in behind in a classic central two, was brilliant to watch.
The same could be said of Ilkay Gundogan and Sven Bender, the central midfield two, in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-1 win over Real Madrid. And it restored your faith in playing a more conventional 4-4-2 because, if you have good enough players who have experience, intelligence, quality on the ball and can tackle and pass, you can still play brilliant football in that system.
For me, it was a throwback to the Emmanuel Petit-Patrick Vieira or the Paul Scholes-Roy Keane partnerships. People have been losing faith in the ability of two central midfielders being able to handle that area of the pitch. Barcelona did that to teams.
Throwback: Bayern's midfield duo were reminiscent of (left to right) Manchester United stars Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, and Arsenal's pairing of Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel PetitSo good were Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Yaya Toure and then Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets at keeping the ball and playing in a three, that other teams have been forced to do the same because they are scared of being overrun by them.
Every game you looked at was started with the premise that you can’t be outnumbered in midfield. Even at Manchester United in European competitions or against Arsenal, they might even play a three in there, with Darren Fletcher coming in alongside Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick.
It’s always good to look back at the archives at times like this. This time last year, England needed to learn from Spain; 10 years ago England needed to learn from France; now it needs to learn from Germany.
But we have to strike a balance in reforming our football. It is possible to reform and evolve your footballing identity as a nation. Germany, traditionally, were all about the back three and the sweeper, with players such as Matthias Sammer and Franz Beckenbauer in the middle of a back three. Now their best club sides are playing a 4-4-1-1 and the national team play something similar. You can change your footballing identity and the Germans have done that in the last 12 years.
Evolution: Germany used to play with a back three, including Franz Beckenbauer (right)As far as English football is concerned, the German system is as near to our game as we’re going to get in terms of the strength, power, intensity and high tempo. And what Wednesday night’s performance tells you is that with energy, organisation and structure — all of which are English characteristics — you can achieve plenty.
England don’t have to be Brazil, Spain or Argentina. Our club sides don’t have to be Barcelona. Of course, we need to learn from all good football nations and we need more good technical players with the kinds of skills those Latin nations cherish. But while we want to improve those traits, you can never shake off your own footballing identity and nor should we.
Having been in Dortmund to see Borussia beat Real 4-1 and then in Barcelona to see Bayern win 3-0, there was a sense the morning after those games that German football was now overtaking the Spanish model. However, trying to apply what is going on in the club game into international tournaments is tricky.
Twin triumphs: Both German teams played with a lot of intensity and it might not work at an international levelThe problem in replicating what Bayern did during a World Cup or the Euros is that it only works with an enormous amount of intensity and energy. And that is difficult when playing every four days. Given that tournaments are normally played in warmer weather — even Brazil in the winter will be mild and can be hot in the north — it’s hard to play that way in a major tournament.
Even the German national team have struggled. Their manager, Joachim Low, took a gamble in Euro 2012 when he left out first-choice striker Mario Gomez and wide players Thomas Muller and Lukas Podolski for the quarter-final against Greece. He did that because he knows how hard it is to play their style of football twice in a week.
They won but still struggled to maintain their energy levels for the semi-final against Italy’s possession-based diamond midfield. Bayern rested most of their team on Saturday before the Barcelona game.
Rotation: Joachim Low rested several of Germany's key men for the Euro 2012 quarter-final against GreeceIn international tournaments, possession is key for preserving energy. In fact, if Germany and Spain were to meet in a World Cup quarter-final, I would fancy Spain. If Germany attempt to play like Bayern did five times in 20 days prior to a semi-final, they would not be able to put in that level of intensity and organisation. And it only takes one or two players to be weary for the whole system to fall out of shape.
Inevitably, midfielders bear the brunt of the work and tire first and then you can end up either becoming a 4-2-4, with big gaps in between your key players or you’re sat back in two lines of four, encamped deep in your own half and can’t break quickly enough. Either way, you end up being run ragged, with the two central midfielders exposed.
Changing tides: When Athletic Bilbao beat United last season, we all needed to play the Spanish way...It is the time of year when we start trying to find a new footballing identity for our country. Last year Athletic Bilbao beat Manchester United and we needed to be Spaniards. This year, the Bundesliga prevails and we must be Germans.
But we should maintain perspective. The reality is the quality of the players is paramount in deciding a game, rather than the tactics.
England need to develop their own football identity but we should embrace what is good from abroad while maintaining faith in our own determination, discipline and work-rate. Ironically, it might have taken two German teams to remind us of that.
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