50 Greatest Players in World Cup History: #38 Thomas Müller

The venue was Bloemfontein, South Africa. The sun was shining and the English were fairly confident of beating their old adversary- Germany. The two have shared a pretty intense rivalry: While England came out on top in the 1966 World Cup final on home territory, Germany relied on penalties to make it to the 1990 World Cup final and subsequently win the Cup. 2010 was supposed to be different.

This was a young German team; the likes of Thomas Müller, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil were names not many had heard of. They were young kids that Joachim Low trusted and he imbibed his philosophy of brilliant counter-attacking football. England had a patchy tournament but were expected to cause plenty of problems as they had the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney and the presence of Ashley Cole and John Terry at the back.

In the blink of an eye though, the mood during the game changed. Germany were slick, England were lousy. It took Die Mannschaft slightly more than 30 minutes to take a two-goal lead and though England found a way back into the game, it was all going to change in the second half.

There are two types of forwards in the modern day game. The first is your archetypical forward who can do it all and the second is Thomas Müller. Defenders find it hard dealing with the orthodox forwards. But dealing with Muller? It's quite the task.

The forward doesn't have the look of a forward, does he? His 1.86m and pencil thin legs will give the opposing defender a "he's mincemeat" vibes. But what you get on the pitch is something else. A man who relies on his incredible intuition and ability to exploit space to deliver the coup de grâce, Müller is untouchable in the penalty box.

"I'm not great at following orders, I follow my instinct"- Thomas Müller

Going back to the game against England, Müller scored twice in the second half, both on the counter, to put the game beyond the Three Lions. It was the start of a story that many, including Uli Hoeness, thought was impossible.

Bastian Schweinsteiger had said back then that not many can pick up Müller's runs. Perhaps his ability to find space goes back to the time when he was a defender. Yes, quite some time ago, Müller's style instantly meant he was deployed as a centre-back. But little Thomas often drifted and was interested in making the forward runs.

Obviously playing as a defender helped him understand certain spaces that were hard to mark, so maybe that's an explanation for his deceitful late runs into the box. Eventually, he was moved further up the pitch because he had something that no one else did; the ability to find space.

With 10 World Cup goals to his name already, Müller isn't far behind his compatriot Miroslav Klose. His hat-trick against Portugal in his team's opening match of the 2014 World Cup will be one of his best games as he played a big role apart from just scoring. Pepe's sending off helped Germany of course, and Müller had a big role to play in that.

Still only 28, Müller perhaps has a shot at playing in the 2022 World Cup as well. His game isn't about pace nor is it about brushing off defenders. A player so intelligent will be hard to stop and like Klose, he could get better with age. A definite pick on our list of the 50 Greatest World Cup Players.