Thomas Muller: Interpreting the Raumdeuter
"Ich bin ein Raumdeuter" is what Thomas Muller said in 2011, responding to a question about the hard-to-pin-down role he was playing after a couple of seasons with the senior squad at Bayern Munich. The "interpreter of space" wasn't a position he was given. Rather, he seemed to have created it to reflect his unique mix of skills. But is he really one of a kind, or are there others?
Muller seems to travel through wormholes to pop up in pockets of space in the penalty area. He uses his positioning to tip the balance against opposing defenders in the final third. He moves with the freedom of a libero, like Bayern's own Lothar Matthaus did when he virtually created that position, but in more advanced areas of the pitch and with less obvious protagonism. His job is one of triangulation, of physics. And he does it very well.
Muller's outstanding attribute in our data – besides his extraordinary attacking output – is his ability to receive the ball in the box. While so much of football analytics focuses on passing skill, Muller is the player who makes the passes possible by finding space to receive. He turns fullbacks into playmakers, midfielders into geniuses.
To do this, Muller has to range across much of the final third. Here are his smartermaps at CAM/SS for the past two seasons:
He usually starts out on the right and then comes inside, but he can pop up pretty much anywhere. This season he's been getting more touches centrally, and he's also been doing less dribbling on the edge of the box. In almost every area, he displays a mix of long and short passing, making his actions difficult to predict. And he's not shooting as much as he used to – the man who scored 20 goals across about 2,400' in 2015-16 is now primarily an assist artist, with 17 already this season.
That puts him in the sort of company you might not expect among players at CAM/SS in Europe's top five leagues. Here are the ones with the closest styles in our metrics:
In addition to Muller, the other players who've been successful with this style are Dusan Tadic and Roberto Firmino. They're not exactly the same, of course, but they are two players who have had pivotal and advanced roles in their squads' attacks without being their leading goalscorers. Here are stats for all three at a Bundesliga standard:
In fact, Firmino – though nominally a striker – actually received balls in the box less often than Muller or Tadic during these seasons when playing in a deeper role. It's notable that Muller isn't such a talented finisher, either, so as a scorer he's had to rely on the quality of his chances. And he typically takes very good shots indeed, with an estimated chance of scoring that averages around 15%. The other notable thing about Muller – and Firmino – is how often they disrupt opponents' moves. Their spatial awareness and anticipation work on both sides of the ball.
Muller also gets a fair amount of minutes as a RW, staying wider rather than drifting to the left side. If we look for players who resemble him from that position, there is one intriguing name. Calvin Stengs, whom we've profiled before here, has similar tendencies in terms of his actions. He occupies similar space, too, except that he doesn't drive as close to the goal line to cross or square the ball:
Stengs is 21 years old now, which is about the same age that Muller was when he gave that interview. In Muller's case, it was remarkable that such a young player could describe his role in such a conceptual way. He's 30 now, and the question is whether Stengs or another young player will inherit his mantle. How do you say Raumdeuter in Dutch?
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