lol de gea

what about USA vs bayern?

I think Bayern would win. What a dumb ****ing question.

Since Barcelona lost 7-0 to BM, is that really a good idea?

im thinking neymar and messi would help along with a non-bad defense

Interesting hypothetical. I don't think the answers are unique to Bayern, anything that applies to Bayern almost certainly applies to Barcelona too. Also probably Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and perhaps others. Such is the large factor that familiarity plays.

I think everyone can agree on the following:

- If the game was played with no preparation, tomorrow, with no training sessions etc, then Bayern are significant favourites.
- If a new "club" was formed where they could select the world all stars and play a season in a top league, play Champions League football etc, managed by lets say Jurgen Klopp, then by May when the CL final rolls around the all stars would be favourites.

I don't imagine a single person disputing either of these. Therefore it boils down to how long do the all stars need to be together before they are favourites?

OPs question is specific in the length of time, affording the all stars one week with prep time etc.

I think that is a little bit too short of a time. I bet on Bayern Munich in this scenario without thinking too much about it. But change it to one month? I can't help but feel that betting on Bayern would be burning money at that point.

You are forgetting that the world's best coach is already taken by us, so no matter how long you allow the world XI to prepare, they'll always be inferior.

If they can get Jupp Heynckes out of retirement, then maybe they have a chance.

Nice to see Bayern fans haven't let the success go to their heads

I think you are forgetting that the all stars will have a significant individual quality edge. So even with an inferior coach they can't be perpetually underdogs.

Also burning money is a figure of speech. Obviously Bayern could still win, but I think they would be underdogs at that point.

Also to clarify I am not just saying a month of practice, I am saying a month of being an actual club side, owned by Bill Gates who is putting all his money into Microsoft FC who bribed UEFA and the Premier League to let them play in the Champions League and Premier League from day 1.

This is a little different that OPs hypothetical obviously but I am just thinking about when and under what circumstances the all stars become favourites.

When the team that you've supported all your life eventually becomes the undisputed best in the world, then you better use the time until the inevitable changing of the guard (whenever it may come) wisely and let it get to your head, proper.

lol, fair enough

I'm sure this has already been suggested....

Barca + Samaras/Forster playing in Celtic kits at Parkhead during midweek and it would be murder for Bayern.

This international team exists already and it is called Real Madrid. The answer is available empirically.

Lol, good one.

Bayern are the best team in the world right now, yes, but they're going to have to keep that up for another 3-4 years to be mentioned in the same breath as Barca under Pep, who I could see beating an international all-star side even after a month or two preparation.

I don't really see that with today's Bayern, even if last season was extremely impressive. An international all-star team is simply going to have too much talent to deal with once they have solid team cohesion.

how did I miss this thread?

I would take Klopp, the Signal Iduna Park, maybe Hummels, fill up the team with Barcelona players and call them Borussia Dortmund. Should give you your best chance.

So what you are saying is that, to keep being the best team in the world, we have to keep being the best team in the world? No kidding?

You can say and think about this 2013/14 Bayern what you want, but this:



... is simply never going to be a significant dog, ever, to anyone. And that's just one permutation of equally strong, but slightly different, starting XIs and strategies we can field, all of which you'll have to prepare against in the LÖLonemonth you have to mold the team together for the one-off against the best team in the world.

Neuer, Lahm, Alaba, Schweinsteiger and Ribéry (or 45% of our starting XI) are already the best players on their positions currently. If we include Toni Kroos (which most of you won't, but I will, simply because he's THAT good) we've broken through the 50% barrier, making it 54% of our starters being the best on their positions. Let's call Martínez and Busquets a wash and we're up to 7/11 players in our starting squad (or 63%) that are the best or the shared best in the world on their respective positions right now.

Meanwhile we are having Mario Götze and Thiago warming the bench.

Go ahead and prepare a squad with no cohesion whatsoever for one month and see how well you fare. We'd be LÖLing, and our fans would go:

Good luck getting a soccer official to accept a bride.

Lol I mean don't get me wrong, Ribery is fantastic, but he's not a better player than Ronaldo. Ronaldo plays the same position as Ribery. Kroos is not the second best midfield player in the world.. Even if you dig him, that doesn't make him better than other world-class midfielders like Xavi, Iniesta, Vidal etc.

We're all aware Bayern are an amazing side, with fantastic players, but you crushed Europe ONE year. Get off your high horse bre.

Ronaldo isn't really a massive upgrade on Ribery in a superteam given Ribery's two-way play. Kroos is definitely > Vidal and probably > Xavi at this stage in time. basically agree with SN.

lol @ including vidal into the top3 midfielders but hating on kroos in the same sentence.

the point is not whether ronaldo is better or worse than ribery individually , the point is that Alaba+Ribery playing fantastic together for years is most definitely better than Alba+Ronaldo playing together for a week.

anyways, what team do we send??

a team of super-steroided up mutant warriors ldo

I feel like the argument about who gets in which team is obscuring the original point of the hypothetical, which was OP trying to get a sense of how important familiarity and cohesion are relative to pure talent.

Bayern: 80% favorites after a week, 65-70% after a month, 55-60% after six months, 45-50% after a year and a half (not taking into account aging)?

I think the decline is more precipitous at the longer term. Never to the point where it's 80-20 the other way, but 65-70% for "world XI playing as a club side for a year" doesn't seem outlandish.