Comparing the treble-winning sides from the Champions League era

It is a joyous moment as a fan when your favourite football club wins a trophy and it often leaves us in an ecstatic and frenzy mode. The excitement level peaks according to the size of the tournament. It goes on increasing from winning the League Cup to winning the League to winning the Champions League. So what happens when a club wins all three trophies in the same year? That is the pinnacle of how happy and excited a fan can be.Winning a treble is one of the biggest achievements for any football club because of the sheer difficulty in doing it, especially in Europe and hence it is not surprising that in the history of the game only seven different teams have achieved the treble that involves the League, UEFA Champions League and the league cup. Of these seven teams four have won the treble in the Champions League era, namely - Manchester United (1999), Barcelona (2009), Internazionale (2010) and Bayern Munich (2013).So which of these treble winning sides from the Champions League era is the best among the lot? Here is a comparison between these four sides.

#1 Team quality and set-up

Seven of the players pictured above from Barcelonas preferred starting 11 from 2008/09 were from their academy

There is a striking similarity between three of these treble winning squads, namely - Manchester United, Barcelona & Bayern Munich, on how the core of their squad was formed. Many of the important first team players in the squad for these three clubs were from their academy and the clubs rallied on the performance of these famed academy graduates even after their successful treble winning season as well.

In the case of Manchester United, some of the important players in the side were Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, and all of these players were from their academy and would go on to represent the club for many more years. The average age of the United squad from 1998/99 with ten or more appearances was just over 27 years though because of many veteran players in the squad.

The Barcelona squad from 2008/09 was much younger than the Manchester United squad with an average squad age of just 25.5 & out of the 18 first team players who made more than 10 appearances that season, 10 were from the academy, namely Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro, Bojan & Victor Sanchez, and of these 10, seven were regular starters for the team.

Similar was the case with Bayerns squad from 2012/13, but only six of their players were from the academy and they were Lahm, Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Alaba and Badstuber, but all six were important first team players. The average age of the squad was almost 27 due to fringe first team players like Tymoshchuk, Van Buyten & Pizzaro who were 34, 35 and 34 at that time.

Contrary to the other three squads, Internazionales squad from 2009/10 was set up in a completely different manner unlike the other three squads. Most of their first team players were nearing the end of what is usually called the peaks years of a professional footballer and majority of the first team players were brought from other clubs over the years.

The only players from the academy who had any sort of role to play in the side during that season were Balotelli & Davide Santon, but they were not regulars by any means. Moreover the Inter side was quite old with an average squad age close to 29!

In terms of the quality of the sides and how the team was set up for the future, Barcelona edge the other three treble winning sides.

#2 Manager

Alex Ferguson with his treble from 1998/99

When Sir Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United in 1986 he could only manage to finish 11th in the league in his debut season. But the Scot built his own squad over the years after enduring a difficult start to his career as Manchester United manager and would then go on to win the Premier League four times on the trot in between 1992/93 and 1996/97. The Manchester United squad that won the treble in the 1998/99 season was one that was built and groomed by Ferguson.

That was not the case with managers like Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Jupp Heynckes. The trio already had a world class squad at their disposal when they were appointed as managers and were also given ample financial backing to draft in more players.

Guardiola was succeeding Frank Rijkaard as the Barcelona manager and Rijkaard left him a young, quality and successful squad. It was Rijkaard who drafted some players from the academy into the first team squad who would later go on to play a major role in the side under Guardiola and the biggest name amongst the lot is Lionel Messi.

Internazionale appointed Jose Mourinho in 2008 to replace Roberto Mancini and Mourinho inherited a squad that had won a hat-trick of Serie A titles from 2005/06 to 2007/08. Moreover Inter gave Mourinho a huge kitty for transfers and that strengthened their squad even more during Mourinho’s reign.

Similar was the case with Jupp Heynckes who reaped the benefits of the work done by Louis van Gaal before him. Van Gaal was the one who made Muller, Kroos, Alaba and Badstuber important first team members of Bayern and also purchased one of their crucial players – Arjen Robben.

It is clear that Alex Ferguson built a squad from the scratch and made them European champions while the other treble winning managers were given a world class squad to work with from the beginning.

#3 Style of play

Bayern celebrate a goal against Barcelona in the semi-final

Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United squads were famed for scoring plenty of goals, retaining possession, controlling the tempo of the game according to the demand of the situation and his sides were known for their deadly counter attacking style. His side also possessed the qualities of a typical English team. They generally used a 4-4-2 formation, used the physical aspect of the game to good effect and had the grit and determination to grind out results even in the most unlikely circumstances.

Inernazionale’s treble winning squad’s playing style had Jose Mourinho’s trademark all over it. They employed a high pressing, high tempo, fast counter attacking game with huge emphasis on the defensive organization and shape of the team. Mourinho’s sides are known to be defensive at times, especially in tough away fixtures so that his team comes away with a result. The Portuguese also shifted Inter to a four at the back setup from the traditional Italian 3 at the back formations. Mourinho’s defensive approach to the game is effective, no doubt, but it isn’t a treat to the eyes in any aspect.

Barcelona’s style of play is the well-known tiki-taka and under Pep Guardiola it reached new extremes. He used the Dutch total football’s high defensive line, positional interchange and use of possession to control the game. He forced his goalkeepers to play the ball out from the back, pushed his full backs higher up the pitch and replaced the striker with a false nine to keep the ball moving fluidly. What is astonishing is that 2008/09 was Guardiola’s first season in charge of any senior side and he won the treble in his first season after making his team adjust to his style of play very quickly.

Although Barcelona’s style of play was very effective, there is a division of opinion on the entertainment aspect of the style. Some cite it as elegant and beautiful to watch while others label it as boring and dull. Also, the tiki-taka game was not built on defensive qualities and often found the team getting caught out on counter attacks.

For me, I find the perfect style of football to be attacking play and the Bayern Munich side under Jupp Heynckes played stunning football. Bayern used a style which thrilled fans across the globe. Instead of sacrificing one area for greater control in another, Bayern were ruthless in all areas of the pitch.

Their blend of defence, possession, and attacking force exemplified the way football should be played. They used a 4-2-3-1 formation with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez marshaling the midfield and the full backs pushing up and overlapping with the wingers to provide greater threat while attacking. Their passing was quick and hence they drilled holes in opposition defences with their counter-attacking style of play.

The Bayern Munich team from 2012/13 had great chemistry and let’s not forget that this was a side that trashed Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-final of the Champions League.

#4 Dominance in domestic competitions

The 2012/13 season was the start of Bayern’s dominance in Germany

Manchester United won the title in 1999 by a single point on the last day of the season by coming back from a goal deficit to beat Tottenham Hotspur. It was not a dominating performance in the league by any means as Arsenal and Chelsea gave them a fight till the very end. Their road to FA Cup glory was very difficult as they played Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal on their way to the final, where they beat Newcastle. But they could only beat both Chelsea and Arsenal after having to play replays.

Barcelona’s domestic performance in their treble-winning season was the start of their dominance in Spain under Guardiola. They won the title over arch rivals Real Madrid by nine points, while scoring 105 goals and conceding just 35! They lost just five games in the whole season and surprisingly four of them were against opponents a team like Barcelona would normally beat comfortably. In the Copa del Rey, Barcelona were not faced with many challenging matches as they didn’t even play Real Madrid that year.

Inter’s title win was also a close affair as AS Roma put up a good fight and even took the lead with just four games to go, only drop points later on and eventually conceded the title to Inter by just two points. Moreover, Inter failed to beat their title rivals in two attempts and even lost against Roma at a crucial point of the season which eventually led to Roma taking the lead. On the other hand, their performance in the Copa Italia was impressive as they had to beat Livorno, Juventus, Fiorentina and finally AS Roma to secure the cup.

The 2012/13 season was the start of Bayern’s monopoly in Germany which still continues. Bayern won the title by a mammoth 25 points lead and they lost just one game, drew four, thereby amassing 91 points over the course of the season. They also scored 98 goals that season and conceded just 18 through the campaign. In the DFB Pokal, their only major challenge was the game against Borussia Dortmund and other than that it was a cruise for the Bavarians. In the end, they broke or equalized 30 different domestic records at the end of the season!

Hands down Bayern Munich produced the most dominating performance in domestic competitions in a treble winning season.

#5 Performance in Europe

The 2010 triumph ended Inter’s 45 year wait for a European title.

Manchester United’s performance in Europe that season had the hallmark of a side built by Alex Ferguson. Their group was not easy as they were drawn with Bayern Munich & Barcelona, and United drew home and away to both teams. Moving into the quarter finals they produced a convincing display against Inter and in the semi-final they overturned Juventus’ two-goal lead in the second leg by scoring three away goals.

It was in the final that they proved that they were indeed the comeback kings as they scored two injury time goals to clinch the cup. In the end, it was a gritty performance from the Red Devils.

Guardiola’s first Champions League title came amidst plenty of controversy. Barcelona were playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the semifinal after the first leg finished goalless at the Camp Nou. The home side took the lead in the ninth minute and had plenty of valid penalty appeals turned down one after the other by referee Tom Ovrebo. Iniesta then scored an injury time goal for the Catalans to give them the advantage on away goals. This incident marred the good performance they put up in the previous rounds and tainted their victory to an extent.

Inter’s group stage performance was below par as more was expected of side managed by Jose Mourinho. Inter finished second in the group, managed just two wins and even lost to Barcelona. But from the knockout stage they put up some great performances. Inter defeated Chelsea and then later CSKA Moscow with relative ease before tactically thumping Barcelona 3-1 at the San Siro and then holding on to their lead at the Nou Camp in the semifinal. Once they reached the final, they beat Bayern convincingly. The Barcelona side which Inter defeated was an improvement over their treble winning side from 2008/09 and hence it was a great performance from the Italian club in Europe that season.

The highlight of Bayern’s treble winning season was their 7-0 rout of Barcelona in the semi-final, but they faltered on their way to the final at times. In the group stages they lost surprisingly to Belarusian club BATE Borisov and then to Arsenal at the Allianz Arena in the first knockout stage, which almost put them in a predicament as the Gunners were only eliminated on away goals.

For the performance in Europe, Inter should be named the best one as they played the defending Champions twice in different stages and were also given relatively tough draws throughout the tournament and still came out on top.

#6 Conclusion

The Bayern Munich side under Heynckes was a treat to the eyes

It is very difficult to label which treble side was the best of the lot, but I am going with Bayern Munich’s treble winning squad of 2013 as the best treble winning side in the Champions League era.

Bayern’s starting 11 was relatively young and consisted of many players from their academy which helped lay a strong foundation for their future. Moreover this side dominated the domestic league in emphatic fashion and were equally good in Europe barring a few hiccups on their way to glory.

The way Heynckes’ side pulled themselves up after their heartbreak in 2012, when they lost to Chelsea in the final of the Champions League at the Allianz Arena is also commendable.

But what made this team amazing was how they played football. They were dominant in all parts of the field. Fluid in attack and strong while defending. They scored goals for fun and their style of play was simply admirable.