What I picked up from the feature announcements from FM15 sounded decent enough, but the addition of the Raumdeuter to the tactical roles got me excited. I am not going to try and describe the role, especially not when others have already done so in a much more eloquent manner.

Watching Müller navigate his way around the the pitch – imagine a demented crab on speed – at first sight it is actually difficult to determine what he actually does. He charges down the wing, but looks distinctly awkward and lacks the free-flowing grace of a Marco Reus, André Schürrle or Marko Marin. He can score goals, but will rarely appear on most pundits’ top list of strikers. Yet Müller’s lack of grace and somewhat relaxed demeanour is counterbalanced by an unbridled energy and passion, and his awkwardness is – for his opponents and those who dare underestimate him – chillingly deceptive.

The key to Müller’s game is not the ability to dribble and drift pass opposing defenders and raise eyebrows in the crowd with dazzling moves, but his guile, intelligence, vision, positioning off the ball and instinctive tactical nous. There is also his great versatility: with both a decent left and right foot he can play on the left, right or through the middle, can shore up the defence when needed and can also play the striker’s role and score goals. If asked, he could probably make a decent goalkeeper too.

Müller is a chess player on the pitch, and his apparent lack of mobility is made up by his ability to read the game: he instinctively knows where to be and – here’s the crucial factor – how to get there first. He is at the same time both anonymous and ubiquitous, the sort of player who is hardly ever noticed on the pitch, but one who is always conspicuous by his absence. He is constantly creating diversions for his more free-running team mates, and sowing the seeds of doubt in opposition defences by popping up unannounced with his trademark grimace or childish grin.

– See more at: http://bundesligafanatic.com/thomas-muller-der-raumdeuter-like-a-spider-scuttling-hither-and-thither/#sthash.n46GJ0a3.dpuf

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Squawka also wrote about this role.

Not many pundits/analysts seemed to initially grasp the style of Thomas Müller, but since he labelled himself as a “raumdeuter” — which is best translated as ‘space interpreter’, many have begun to understand the complex German’s style of play.

Müller’s game is a mixture of the old and new, a cultured blend of being capable of individual brilliance with intelligent technique, but also epitomising the typical team player many managers crave in today’s game.

Müller isn’t the type of traditional winger we’ve come to know in football, no typical trademark — no blistering pace, no immense dribbling skills to turn defenders dizzy… No emphasis on a typical winger attribute. No, Müller is different to the traditional. He’s the type to drift out of the game, unnoticed, until the right moment, where he makes the diverting run into space to be through on goal and before you know it, he’s in to score or assist.

Read more at http://www.squawka.com/news/thomas-muller-the-space-interpreter/7793#0cLM06zj07Xt8Y9q.99

If you’re into more poetic explanations, try this one from The Guardian’s Barney Ronay.

His special power is to find space, space invisible to the non-Raumdeuter, and spread into it like a plume of smoke, or a form of insidious footballing dry rot. This is what he produced against Juventus, a frictionless occupation by stealth, always moving – if not moving that much – in search of the single most vital commodity in elite modern football: space, the final and, in fact, pretty much only, frontier. The fact that Müller coined this term himself in a newspaper interview makes it even better. He’s sidled in there, that sneaky Raumdeuter.

Read more at http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/apr/05/bayern-munich-thomas-muller

So why would this excite me so much? Strikerless is all about exploiting space between and behind the lines, about forcing your opponent to make a move and hammering them when they do. Imagine the damage a Raumdeuter could do in such a setup…

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Guido

Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.