Lahm - October’s Player of the Month

Philipp Lahm has helped shape the Bundesliga for quite some time, but it wasn’t just his pass accuracy, vision and presence that was so impressive in October; Lahm netted a Bundesliga brace (plus 1 assist).

As usual, the Bayern captain also helped provide the necessary stability in defence, with FCB not conceding a single league goal in October.

He also led the German record champions to a sensational 7-1 win at AS Roma in the Champions League, FC Bayern’s biggest ever away win in European competition.

From FT Gern to FC Bayern

Philipp Lahm is the only Munich-born first-team player at FCB. His career began at local club Freie Turnerschaft München-Gern. Lahm joined FC Bayern in 1995 and has remained a loyal servant to the club ever since. However, in order to give him plenty of playing time in his early years as a pro, Lahm was sent out on loan to VfB Stuttgart for two years from summer 2003. He made a total of 53 Bundesliga appearances for VfB (2 goals) and his first seven top-flight games all resulted in clean sheets – this meant that Lahm had a hand in the longest run without conceding a goal for a goalkeeper in Bundesliga history: Timo Hildebrand went 882 minutes without having to pick the ball out the back of his net. Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer managed a 668-minute-long run without conceding this season, before Dortmund’s Marco Reus netted a header on matchday 10 in FCB’s 2-1 win.

Lahm managed to establish himself at FCB following his return from Stuttgart; featuring in at least 20 Bundesliga games per campaign – the current captain even played in all 34 top-flight games in three different campaigns, featuring in the starting XI in each of those matches. He also made 79 consecutive appearances without missing a single minute. Despite being a predominantly defensive minded player, Lahm has been involved in at least one goal in each of his Bundesliga seasons. He even had a hand in 11 goals in the 2012/13 campaign – a personal best. Only teammate Franck Ribery (14) assisted more goals than Lahm in that season (11, the same as Thomas Müller).

Lahm doesn’t do things by halves

The FCB captain has won the Bundesliga title an impressive five times: in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014. Of the currently active players, only teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger has won more German Championships (7) – the all-time record holders are Mehmet Scholl and Oliver Kahn (8 titles each). As if that wasn’t enough, Lahm has also won the DFB Cup in each of those five seasons.

201 Bundesliga wins in 323 games

Bayern’s 6-0 win against SV Werder Bremen on Matchday 8 was Lahm’s 200th Bundesliga victory. Only 27 players in the history of the top flight have won more games. The record holder is Oliver Kahn with 310 wins. Of the currently active players, only teammates Claudio Pizarro (210) and Bastian Schweinsteiger (208) are ahead of Lahm.

Lahm could overtake illustrious names such as Andreas Möller and Mehmet Scholl in the near future.

Lahm shows unfamiliar goalscoring instinct

FC Bayern collected seven points in their three Bundesliga games in October, scoring 10 goals without reply. Lahm was involved in three goals, setting up one in the 4-0 win over Hannover, before scoring twice from his three shots in the 6-0 victory against Bremen – he had never scored more than one goal in a competitive game for a professional side before (487 previous matches). On top of that, an incredible 94percent of his passes found a teammate in October. That is the best pass accuracy of all players that featured for at least half an hour.

Precise Lahm: 89percent pass accuracy

Lahm has some remarkable records to his name in the timeframe from when his Bundesliga career began on matchday 1 of the 2003/04 campaign until now:

The most Bundesliga games: 323.

The most wins: 201.

The most touches of the ball: 23 220 (72 per game).

The most passes: 17 622 (55 per game).

The best pass accuracy of all players with at least 17 appearances: 89percent.

Also, Lahm has only picked up a yellow card every 16 games on average in his Bundesliga career and has never been sent off, despite almost always being deployed at full back or in defensive midfield.

Philipp Lahm has shown he is a versatile player throughout his career and has proven himself to be among the world’s best in multiple positions, something only a handful of players have done before him. Depending on his different coaches’ thinking over the years, Lahm has switched between playing at right-back and left-back, consistently performing to an incredible standard in both roles.

Lahm, a composed player on the ball, was handed another new role for the 2013/14 campaign due to Pep Guardiola’s possession-oriented playing style. “He is the most intelligent player that I have ever coached,” said the Bayern head coach of his captain, who has predominantly been deployed in central midfield since.

Lahm’s change of position carried over into the Germany national team, with coach Joachim Löw also opting to use his captain in central midfield at the start of the 2014 Fifa World Cup. However, with his defence looking anything but solid, particularly in the last-16 clash with Algeria (2-1 win a.e.t.), Lahm returned to right-back, a decision which later proved to be key in Germany’s title success.

Success at international level: 2014 world champion!

After Lahm tasted defeat in two Uefa Champions League finals with Bayern (2010 and 2012, with the latter coming in Munich), he finally won Europe’s elite competition with FCB in 2013, beating German rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the final.

He also went on to win the Fifa Club World Cup later in the year. Lahm has won every major trophy at club level and was able to follow up that success with the Germany national team by lifting the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Lahm made his senior debut for Germany in February 2004 in a 2-1 friendly win over Croatia. Going back to Uefa EURO 2004, the Bavarian is the only player that has featured in all of Germany’s matches at European Championships or World Cups in that timeframe, with three of his five international goals coming at major tournaments.

The national team have improved since an early exit at Portugal 2004, reaching at least the semifinals of each major competition since then. Germany even reached the final of EURO 2008, but lost 1-0 to Spain. Lahm took over from Michael Ballack as captain ahead of the 2010 World Cup and led his nation to a long-awaited victory in 2014, with the German side producing some scintillating football along the way. Following the success, Lahm retired from international duty having earned 113 caps. Only three players have made more senior appearances for Germany than Lahm.