Pep Guardiola's new 4-1-4-1 at Bayern Munich

Guardiola was quick to realize Martinez’s worth, but his thinking seems to be matching his idol Bielsa’s. Bielsa had played Martinez as a CB for large parts of his last season at Bilbao, and Pep expressed a similar desire in a recent press meet. Playing Martinez at CB will be similar to the transition that Mascherano made under Pep at Barca, but that in affect would be creating a huge problem for Bayern at the centre of the pitch.

Considering the purely hypothetical and highly disappointing case of Martinez being shifted to the back; this leaves the centre of the pitch to be occupied by the likes of Bastian, Thiago and Gustavo. Looking at previous Pep setups, Luis Gustavo doesn’t fit the label set by pupils like Busquets.

Gustavo’s game is much more about the work ethic rather than passing to the playmaker in the centre, and this call might make some realize the importance of the Thiago transfer. But recent pre-season training sessions and friendlies have made us believe that Pep has something else planned out for the centre of his park.

In the wake of a 4-0 victory over Hansa Rostock, Franck Ribery revealed Pep’s formation as 4-1-4-1, with a clear indication on a false No.9 possible. And a further look into the players Guardiola used in the respective positions makes stuff even more interesting, though he did not have the likes of Martinez, Schweinsteiger and Goetze at his disposal. Ribery’s revelation, though informational, seemed a tad bit in disappointment, as the Frenchman stressed the lack of familiarity that the team had with Guardiola’s decision.

Pep’s system at Barca was always seen to have one of the wingers make a run towards goal after beating the offside trap, while all the time the real Centre Forward kept falling back deeper to connect with the playmakers behind. So Guardiola’s search for such a winger in Bayern will need him to find a suitable outlet for the likes of Bastian and eventually Thaigo operating in midfield.

The No.9 role has been majorly agreed upon as Mario Goetze’s to grab. The 20-year-old has been played there for Germany and his eye for goal was evident on those occasions. Another candidate for that role could have been Thomas Muller, but Muller’s fantastic work ethic is the more demanding positions of midfield will keep him firmly fixed in the role of either a No.10 or right winger.

Muller was used as the No.10 in the recent friendly, and as usual he easily drifted in and out of that role. This always gives the likes of Robben, and in this case Lahm, to attack more centrally.

While Muller and Goetze’s roles seem pretty suited to the Guardiola system, there is a player whose roles might need bit of a revision. Ironically enough, he is in fact the best midfielder amongst this group of gems, but Tony Kroos will most certainly be needed to be pushed back a bit into central midfield.

Kroos, over the last couple of seasons, was seen operating at the tip of the midfield triangle, and was also often drifting into the wings, replacing Muller. As has now often been talked about Kroos, he is by far the most intelligent player while considering space utilization and runs made into the final third.

Apart from these attacking tendencies, Kroos tends to push back deeper at times, hereby allowing Schweinie to run into the space ahead. So in terms of this chemistry, Kroos will surely be given a spot above Thiago. On paper both Thiago and Kroos fill up the spot taken by Cesc Fabregas at Barca, the False No.10 per se. But Kroos’s maturity over Thiago’s youthfulness sees the German preferred in a deeper role and the Spaniard played in a more ‘Iniesta-esque’ position.

So that fills up most of the spots in attack, leaving only the wings for contention.