Why should Jlo not call Holger to the NT when he has been in outstanding form for Germany after the WC playing next to Merta? Only 1 goal allowed in 5 matches.

Most people fail to recognize Bayern's defensive problems. Besides bad defenders (like Breno or Micho) and converted defenders (Tymo, Gustavo, Pranjic) there is another huge factor: Van Gaal's system is obsolete in today's German Football. His tactical approach makes Bayern’s defense worst than what it is and that’s the reason why Holger is efficient for JLo and not for LVG. Holger’s ball distribution, timing and transitions is second to none, he is a little slow but has good instinct for anticipation.

LVG possession football where the ball travels side to side with long strings of passes a few times before it gets to ¾ of the field started to create a long space between the defensive midfield line and the back line, to fix the problem LVG first experimented with the Full Backs making a move in everytime there was a turnover but that left the wings exposed and more than a few goals came that way, then he moved the backline forward transferring that gap between the Center Backs and the GK, this has resulted in so many 1v1’s in the back line which is the ultimate thing any coach wants even with good defenders; in Bayern’s case it exposes the worst of each defender, including Holger who was killed by speed in the Dortmund game.

The new German school, mainly played by Dortmund, Hannover and Mainz in the BL and all sides at National Team Level which relies on moving the lines on defensive mode close to each other in your own half to close all the spaces with pressure only in that zone, then after forcing a turnover go on attack vertically with a stretching component on the front line to create spaces is a killer for LVG’s philosophy. Count how many turnovers caught Bayern’s lines up on the field, many.

I go further, in LVG’s system his biggest assets, the offensive line has become ineffective as well, they are predictable and many teams in the BL figured out how to neutralize it. Only here and there you see a big individual effort from Robben, Gomez, Ribery or Muller to score a goal. The field vision for the long accurate passes of Schweinsteiger and Kroos is wasted when they have to play stringing the ball with short passes, which also exposes both of them weakness: speed. I am convinced that Jurgen Klopp takes the same Bayern line up and will make it work better, give space to Robben, Ribbery, Muller and Gomez and they will double the goals they score, move the defensive lines closer and Bayern will cut in half the number of goals allowed, at that point Holger and Van Buyten might not be as bad as they look right now.

When JLo calls Holger to the NT he knows what he is doing. BTW, Miro Klose has been on Bayern’s bench longer than Holger and JLo not only calls him everytime, he fields him over Gomez.