Squawka小队专访：菲利普-拉姆——进击的小巨人！
特别喜欢这一段：“Equally as important, but still far less heralded by many football lovers, are players like Lahm. These players, often captains, represent an extension of the manager’s philosophy on the pitch. When a team is sent out onto the battlefield this sort of player is the closest thing to a manager’s lieutenant.”
另外小队最后是表示将来也有做教练的可能了吗……？
Exclusive interview: Philipp Lahm – The evolving footballer
https://www.squawka.com/news/philipp-lahm-interview-evolving-footballer/384884
Albert Einstein once said that true intelligence is measured not by what you know but by your ability to change and adapt.
No player in world football better encapsulates the German-born theoretical physicist’s words than Bayern Munich’s full-back turned midfielder, Philipp Lahm.
The last decade has seen the landscape of the game change, across football’s domestic and international fronts. A widespread embracing of forward-thinking tactical ideas, and new competitive pressure points, has seen the traditional player roles and positions of old become re-revolutionised.
Philipp Lahm spoke exclusively to Squawka about his shift from right-back to central midfield.
Manuel Neuer is at the forefront of the second-coming of the ‘sweeper keeper’ while Pep Guardiola’s deployment of Lionel Messi while at Barcelona took talk of the ‘false nine’ beyond specialist tactics blogs and into the realms of TV punditry: two examples at the very highest level.
But if you were to look for the definitive case study of a world-class footballer already at the top of their game, yet still willing to start again in a new unfamiliar position, then the example of Bayern and Germany’s Champions League and World Cup winning captain is irresistible.
Versatility is largely viewed as a curse in football. ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ is levelled at most who try. Few players, if any, can claim to be a world-class performer in multiple positions. In this sense the man known as the ‘Magic Dwarf’ is a trailblazer.
Philipp Lahm the right back holds aloft the Champions League in 2013 to top off a treble-winning season for Bayern Munich.
A major change in position for a player who’s just captained his club to a domestic and European treble might feel like an unnecessary upheaval for most, but as far as his own readjustment on the field is concerned, Lahm has truly taken it all in his stride.
“I like playing in both positions but I’m happy in midfield now,” he said in an exclusive interview with Squawka.
“I always focus on the position I’m playing at the moment, but it’s one I’m new to, and need to learn more about. Some people will say that full back is my best position, because I have played there for so long, and maybe they are right. I am best known as a full back, for sure. But my job now is to try and become the best midfielder I can be.”
Most, if not all, of the world’s best footballing talent can be split into two clear categories. Firstly, those who primarily take the credit and plaudits by providing a tangible end product in the form of match-winning goals or game-saving tackles.
Lahm tackles Ilkay Gundogan during Bayern’s DFB-Pokal Cup clash with Borussia Dortmund.
Equally as important, but still far less heralded by many football lovers, are players like Lahm. These players, often captains, represent an extension of the manager’s philosophy on the pitch. When a team is sent out onto the battlefield this sort of player is the closest thing to a manager’s lieutenant.
Therefore, it speaks volumes that when Pep Guardiola ended his post-Barcelona sabbatical to take the reins at Bayern, he quickly identified Lahm as his highest ranking officer. Lahm himself, was more than happy to take up the promotion.
“There was the chance to do something new, to move into midfield, and I was excited by the possibility. I played there in youth football, and had filled in in midfield before, so it wasn’t totally new,” he revealed.
Even during a season waylaid by injury, Lahm has still managed to shine for Bayern Munich in 2014/15. He scored two goals in a man of the match performance vs. Werder Bremen in October 2014.
“The coach played me in midfield in pre-season and I really enjoyed it. It was fresh, different. I had lots of talks with Guardiola about playing that position, and it has worked well, we have worked hard on it. I’m lucky to have played two different positions. But of course the experience I gained as a full-back – knowledge of defending, and taking up the right positions, helps me as a midfielder.”
A matter of months after first working with the diminutive German, the man who coached Xavi and Andres Iniesta to glory, was moved to describe Lahm as “the most intelligent player I have ever managed”. Visibly embarrassed, Lahm is quick to play down the superlatives from his manager.
“It’s not for me to say, but it is nice to hear,” explains Lahm.
Pep Guardiola and Philipp Lahm.
“It is an incredible compliment to have from someone who has coached so many top players. The coach is meticulous, and we have discussed at length how I play, where I play, what he’d like me to do – and that is very enjoyable, a side of the game I love. So if I can contribute something tactically when talking to one of the great tacticians, then I’m happy.”
Guardiola has told anyone who would listen that most football matches are decided in midfield, so you can make the logical assumption that he wants his best football brain to be in that area. Pep moved Lahm, arguably the finest full-back in the world, into midfield, when he had multiple tailor-made options ready and available but not another top-class right back.
Lahm is able to dominate and control games with his precision, timing and neatness rather than box-to-box brawn. This season, he has committed the least fouls of all Bayern’s regular midfielders. Manuel Neuer is the only player outside of midfield who has committed fewer.
It’s Lahm capacity to problem-solve in real-time on the pitch, adapt accordingly and then deliver results that sets him apart from his peers. It’s this adaptability that makes him a phenomenon at the forefront of the modern game. The 31-year-old agrees the need for versatility is a recent introduction into the sport, but credits legendary Germans who’ve previously shown it can be done with great effect.
“Maybe modern tactics mean that making the switch from defence to midfield is easier. Many years ago, full backs were more limited – you were just supposed to defend, and it didn’t matter if you could get forward too.”
“But that has changed these days and a full back needs to be good on the ball. You have to fulfil more roles. But if you look back through German history, there have always been defenders who can come into midfield and play the ball, too. Look at Franz Beckenbauer, Matthias Sammer, players like that. You can’t say that they couldn’t play in midfield!”
Matthias Sammer played as a sweeper, a centre-back and a defensive midfielder: a past, versatile precursor to Lahm. He is now Sporting Director at Bayern Munich.
In Jupp Heynckes’ all-conquering final season at Bayern, Lahm’s remit was to play as an expansive attacking right-back in a flat back four. The Bundesliga side’s superiority in the vast majority of match-ups in Germany and Europe meant that the lion’s share of Lahm’s work was linking up with forward players, whilst making sure not to expose his centre-back using his astute positional awareness.
As a key figure in a team that was beginning to dominate, his influence in the final third grew almost exponentially from his level of contribution in previous seasons at the club. Looking back, his eventual move into a central midfield role could be considered a natural progression.
In Heynckes treble-winning campaign Lahm had a clear remit to provide goalscoring chances from wide-positions. This was reined in during Guardiola’s first year but this season has shown Lahm discover a balance between the two.
After being shifted into midfield by Guardiola, Lahm saw more of the ball, made a greater number of passes and succeeded in outfoxing opponents more often.
Lahm’s energy and impeccable timing in the tackle are two of his biggest strengths when back playing in the first role he mastered, however, it is his decision-making — especially in the attacking third — that sets him apart from so many of the other accomplished full-backs at the top of the game today.
His passing and crossing from right-back has always been intelligent, but rather than occasionally opening up an opposition’s defence, his thoughtful distribution now sets the rhythm and tempo for Guardiola’s Bayern. Rather than shuttling up and down the right flank, making periodic contributions to moves in and out of the attacking and defensive thirds, he now holds a sustained influence upon the team from within the centre of midfield.
Lahm vs. Hertha Berlin in March 2014: 134/134 passes with a 100% completion rate – the most passes any player in Europe’s top 5 leagues has completed without a single error.
In Bayern’s title-clinching away win at Hertha Berlin in 2014, Lahm firmly vindicated the decision to make him the team’s ‘quarterback’. His 134 completed passes at the Olympiastadion Berlin is a record for any player to have registered a perfect 100% pass completion rate in Europe’s top five leagues over the past five seasons.
More praise poured in from Guardiola following that memorable night in Berlin; “It is impossible to play better than Lahm has in that position over the last couple of games.”
He controls games by thinking, one, two steps ahead of the opposition. Picking up passing patterns to make interceptions in front of his back-four, anticipating opponent’s movement effectively enough to select which forward ball is most likely to lead to a goalscoring chance. Both traits he refined during his years as a full-back.
All of this is done now while situated at the fulcrum of the shape-shifting, writhing mass of Guardiola’s Bayern. The assurance and unflappability he exudes goes a long way to explaining how his tactical shift has been so successful.
So decisive was Lahm’s positional change, Germany national team coach Joachim Low followed Guardiola’s example and pushed his captain into midfield for the triumphant 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil.
Lahm was even more influential for Germany at the 2014 World Cup from both midfield and right-back.
As he told Squawka, both managers share other similarities besides an awareness of his value in the middle of the pitch:
“They are both very calm for starters. They’re not big on ranting and raving, but you can’t mistake that for not being determined. The motivation is extremely strong in both of them. Most of all they are both winners. That drive to win is intense in both of them.
“They both think very, very deeply about the game. They are tactically brilliant. They both believe in youth. I’m privileged to have played for both of them.”
Lahm lifts the World Cup for Germany in 2014 alongside Joachim Low.
When he decides that the day has come for him to call time on his playing career, he will go down as one of Germany’s greatest World Cup-winning captains, a treble-winning leader for Bayern and the “Magic Dwarf” who stood tall alongside the giants of his time. Like Beckenbauer before him, students of the modern era will look back and marvel at how Lahm truly changed the game.
And much like Beckenbauer — who won the football’s greatest prize as both a World Cup-winning player and a manager — a future in the dugout may not be off the cards for Guardiola’s mastermind.
Philipp Lahm is, in many ways, the heir to Der Kaiser’s throne.
“I won’t say it’ll never happen, because I love the game of football and I definitely would like to stay in the sport in some capacity. But for now I am going to focus on playing. I am contracted to Bayern until 2018. It’s a long time and I’ll be 34 by then, so we will have to just see how it all goes. I can decide when I hang up my boots.”
As the most intelligent player to have ever been coached by the world’s most pioneering manager, it would be a shame for football to ever lose out on the brains behind the brilliance of Philipp Lahm.
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