Now the World Cup 2014 has come to an end...

[Karl]

Defense is a team thing, as you saw Lahm played dm and rb and was probably the MVP of the German team throughout the cup.defenders must be able to actually defend, defensive midfielders must be truly defense first attack second, England showed us this in a very clear way, two dm's that were attack focused and they were out in round one. We are seeing more rounded all round players rather than hard core specialists, ability to be flexible and change attack and defense looks within games is a great tool.

It is hard to grasp the thought of a player being a specialist in more than one area. On the German TEAM in this past World Cup each player is worth isolating as individual case study. I would suggest that the real enthusiast puts 'special eye' on Thomas Muller -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M%C3%BCller & TH14's view: http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/...er-bayern-mun/ & FIFA describes him as,
Thomas Muller is one of that rare breed of footballers, whose displays makes them impossible to pigeon-hole. He has long been one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in the world game thanks to his instinctive style, untrackable movement and ability to seemingly always make the right decisions even at full sprint. - http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/players...le-detail.html

- Jerome Boateng [Described by the 'talking heads' as slow...while as fact he is extremely fast! ], Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger (look & look & look again at his performance on attack and defense over and over and over...) and then there is one Mesut Oezil - It will surprise many who watched each German game during the World Cup as each wakes up to the realization that Oezil put in valuable work on defense.

Aside: The Spanish national TEAM of a few past years (previous 10(?) years) and the current German TEAM (TEAM as presented during the last World Cup) is (differences but consider them as one model) where present coaches must aim to replicate if they are serious about/on becoming top in their field and wish ultimate achievements for their TEAMs.

It is as I said on this forum years ago...and have repeated over time - TEAM where each player is fast, technically and tactically magnificent...minds operating within...always within...TEAM concept.

TEAM 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...to infinitum! TEAM! TEAM! Glorious TEAM!!!