Fantastic 4: Players Bayern Munich Should Move for in Winter Transfer Window

Carlo Ancelotti is blessed with one of the strongest squads in the game at Bayern Munich.

The team that won a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title have been kept together, with Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels added in the summer as well as UEFA Euro 2016-winning teenager Renato Sanches.

How could the Bundesliga champions add to a near-perfect stable of players? Perhaps some of the following names could do a job at the Allianz Arena.

Thiago Silva

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Ancelotti and Silva have a close working relationship from their time together at PSG.

Jerome Boateng might be the world's best centre-back. Mats Hummels—a reported €35 million summer arrival from Borussia Dortmund—is his partner for world champions Germany and also justifiably in that conversation. The notion that Bayern would be in the market for another central defender might therefore seem fanciful.

However, a torn thigh muscle for the former, and knee and head injuries for the latter have restricted the pair to a combined 367 of a possible 900 Bundesliga minutes so far in 2016-17. 

Thiago Silva would not come cheap, but he was Ancelotti's captain at Paris Saint-Germain as they won the Ligue 1 title in 2012-13, and things haven't exactly been going to plan for the Brazil international as he enters the final year of his contract in the French capital.

PSG have struggled since Unai Emery replaced Laurent Blanc in the summer and are fourth in the league table. Silva was also unhappy with the club's decision to block his participation in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the summer, per Loic Tanzi of Goal.

There is also an enduring mutual respect between the Bayern manager and Silva. "[Silva's] speed, his great ability to recover the ball, the way he reads the game, all combined with an extraordinary leap in aerial duels makes him one of the best defenders in the world," Ancelotti wrote in his 2015 book Mes Secrets d'Entraineur.

Silva responded in kind in March, when he told beIN Sports (h/t Tom Etherington of Sambafoot): "I've worked with a lot of coaches in my career, but one man stands out, and that's Mr. Ancelotti."

With Javi Martinez and Joshua Kimmich, who are midfielders by trade, regularly deputising at centre-back over the last year, and Boateng and Hummels struggling to play every game, a move for Silva—surely the best centre-back outside of Bayern, Real Madrid and Barcelona—could serve Bayern well.

Julian Weigl

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Weigl's distribution would make him an ideal addition to Bayern's midfield.

Borussia Dortmund would surely fight tooth and nail to stop talented midfielder Julian Weigl leaving Signal Iduna Park, but there can be few players in world football more suited to inheriting Xabi Alonso's mantle as the Bundesliga's pass-master. In some senses, the 21-year-old—13 years the Spaniard's junior—already has.

With his 214 touches of the ball in Dortmund's 2-2 draw with FC Cologne in May, Weigl surpassed Alonso's previous Bundesliga possession record of 204 touches, set against the same opponents in the 2014-15 season, per ESPN FC.

Up against the world-class midfield talents of Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in Dortmund's 2-2 draw with European champions Real Madrid on Tuesday, Weigl's lithe movement and selfless distribution helped him end the first half as the only player on the pitch to have completed 100 per cent of his passes, according to OptaFranz.

He has certainly come a long way since being stripped of the 1860 Munich captaincy in 2014 after being overheard talking negatively about the club on a drunken night out.

Born in Bad Aibling, 35 miles south-east of Munich, the Bavarian native would take no time to settle into his surroundings, and it's not as if Bayern have never sealed a Dortmund signature in midseason. 

Mario Gotze agreed a deal with the Allianz Arena club in April 2013 before joining that summer, and Robert Lewandowski followed him on a free transfer the following January.

Thorgan Hazard

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Hazard has been in free-scoring form recently.

Eden Hazard may have been voted the Player of the Year after helping Chelsea romp to the Premier League title in 2014-15, but it has now been two full seasons since the elder of the two Hazard brothers surpassed the Borussia Monchengladbach man in terms of attacking output.

Already this season, Thorgan Hazard has three goals in 290 Bundesliga minutes, where Eden has two from the 507 he has played in the Premier League. Four goals in two Champions League games, including the opener in Wednesday's 2-1 loss at Barcelona, suggest that the 23-year-old is blossoming into a player who can cut it at the top level.

Six goals in seven competitive appearances have seen Hazard the younger linked with a move back to Chelsea, with Bild (h/t ESPN FC's Stephan Uersfeld) reporting recently that the London club had a €15 million buyback clause in his contract.

Bayern would likely have to pay more for the nascent talent, who is capable of playing wide or through the centre. He claims he is going nowhere, though, per Uersfeld: "I feel good here [at Gladbach], and am currently not thinking about any other club."

On playing more centrally this season, Hazard added: "I play up front a bit more and also in a more central position. It's normal I score more goals."

Hazard could provide cover for Thomas Muller, who is currently lining up out wide, and Robert Lewandowski, whose main deputy for now is the aptly named Julian Green.

Ancelotti has yet to work with Hazard, with the Italian leaving Chelsea in 2011 and the Belgian joining the Blues in 2012, but if the forward can carry his form into Gladbach's trip to the Allianz Arena next month, perhaps the coach should move to rectify that fact.

Jhon Cordoba

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Cordoba scored against Bayern in a 2-1 win for Mainz in March.

Hazard's free-scoring form aside, he is not an out-and-out centre-forward, and since Claudio Pizarro left for Werder Bremen in 2015, Bayern have not had an established striker to act as an understudy to Lewandowski.

The Poland captain rarely misses a game for Bayern—he has yet to sit out two consecutively since his 2014 arrival from Dortmund, but he cut a frustrated figure against Atletico Madrid in midweek; being able to rotate him more often would leave Lewandowski fresher for the biggest occasions.

Jhon Cordoba has five goals in eight games in all competitions for Mainz this term, with his physique leading media in his native Colombia to dub him "the Colombian [Didier] Drogba," per FIFA.com.

The 23-year-old shies away from that comparison, saying, per FIFA: "It's true my movement and style are a bit like Drogba...a nickname is never bad, but I'd rather be known by my own name."

Such humility has served Cordoba well—he scored the fastest goal by a substitute in this season's Europa League, equalising less than a minute after coming on in the eventual 3-2 win for Mainz over Azerbaijan side Qabala FK on Thursday. If he can handle time on the bench at Mainz, then he could surely manage the same in Bavaria.

Lewandowski will not be budged from the first team unless he suffers an unforeseen injury or perhaps the club see an astronomical bid from one of their continental rivals. Cordoba has shown the patience to wait for his chance and the ability to seize it when it is presented, and he could therefore be a great fit for Bayern.