When Bastian Schweinsteiger first made it through the academy and the reserves through to FC Bayern's first team he was looked at as a natural replacement for midfield master Steffan Effenberg. Even I myself mistook Schweinsteiger as Effenberg when I saw the Kolbermoor born player in the Bayern team for the first time. Effenberg's career was just about to end when Schweinsteiger first made a mark and he did virtually replace the former Bayern and Germany icon in the team, though mostly he was played as a winger.
The start was promising and unusual for a German player the discipline part wasn't the main strenght of his game, but the trickery and skills. Soon after though the man who's so far capped 72 times by Germany started going through growing pains with his form being very unstable. The situation also made his position in the team uncertain, but the arrival of Louis van Gaal seems to have rejuvenated his will to play and reinvented him as a defensive minded midfielder.
The move was mostly inspired by the arrival of Arjen Robben, but trying to fit one player into the team to get the best out of him, van Gaal now seem to get it from two players. Schweinsteiger's form which has carried Bayern out from a slump, which they had at the beginning of the season, and talks have now started that he could also do the same job for the national side.
It's an untried set up with Schweinsteiger's renascence falling into a period with no international fixtures, but Germany's manager Joachim Löw will have his first opportunity to try it out versus Argentina in a friendly in two weeks time. It will be seen if this will be the set up in South Africa, but on paper a midfield pairing of Schweinsteiger and Ballack would strike fear into any opposition. Especially with Özil in front of him, who I tip to be a big star in the summer.
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