The greatest Bayern XI debate, explained

Four names go into every serious all-time Bayern XI without argument: Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and, from the modern era, one of Manuel Neuer or Philipp Lahm. After that the disagreements start, and they are always the same three disagreements.

First: can you pick two goalkeepers' worth of certainty? Maier played 442 consecutive Bundesliga matches and won three European Cups. Neuer won two trebles and changed what the job is. Only one can play, and the choice is really a choice about whether you weight era-defining influence or trophies.

Second: where does Lahm play? He was among the best right-backs in the world, then among the best left-backs, then a controlling central midfielder good enough that Guardiola moved him there. Any XI that plays him at full-back wastes him; any XI that plays him in midfield has to drop someone.

Third: how do you compare 1974 to 2020? Gerd Müller's 365 Bundesliga goals came in a league with different defensive tactics, different pitches and no substitution culture. Lewandowski's 41-goal season came against organised, video-analysed defences. Neither number translates cleanly.

A defensible starting point, offered as an argument rather than an answer: Neuer; Lahm, Beckenbauer, Schwarzenbeck, Breitner; Schweinsteiger, Matthäus, Thomas Müller; Ribéry, Gerd Müller, Robben. That leaves out Kahn, Rummenigge and Lewandowski, which is exactly why the debate never ends.