Sanches, Vidal and Thiago Offer a Sizzling Midfield Option for Bayern Munich

It is perhaps only natural that it has taken some time, but Carlo Ancelotti slowly but surely is forming the idea of what his best Bayern Munich lineup looks like.

The problem has never been at the back, where the four of Philipp Lahm, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and David Alaba are clear first-choice selections in their respective roles. Options up front are limited, with Robert Lewandowski the only experienced out-and-out forward at the Italian's disposal.

Midfield, where most of the wealth in Bayern's rich squad lies, has provided a number of thorny dilemmas for Ancelotti, but perhaps he has now stumbled upon the best solution.

Tuesday's UEFA Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid was called "the most important unimportant game of the year" by Bild (in German), and to an extent, it had a point: Atletico were already through, Bayern destined to finish second.

Yet it not only provided Bayern with the confidence boost of a win over a strong Atleti side, exacting a measure of revenge for last season's semi-final defeat and Lewandowski with the chance to show off his free-kick ability and tell the world he is to be a father. It also gave Ancelotti a glimpse of what might be in midfield.

He had already abandoned his 4-3-3 formation for a 4-2-3-1 in last weekend's Bundesliga win over Mainz and saw it reap instant dividends. The 3-1 win featured Thiago Alcantara paired with Lahm in front of the back four and Thomas Muller behind Lewandowski.

On Tuesday, Thiago was given Muller's role, with Renato Sanches and Arturo Vidal behind. It provided more of the same, but with a difference.

The stats from the game against Atleti are eloquent: 15 shots to five, 71 per cent possession. In the face of the likes of Koke, Nicolas Gaitan and Saul Niguez, players of that stratospheric calibre in the opponents' midfield, the figures are all the more impressive, regardless of the stakes in play.

When Pep Guardiola canvassed for Thiago's arrival in Munich, he had boldly vaunted the versatility of the then-Barcelona man. "Thiago can play as a No. 6, as a No. 8, as a No. 10, a No. 11 and a No. 7," Guardiola said, per Focus (in German), in summer 2013, when Thiago swapped Catalonia for Bavaria.

The Spain international has already proved his worth as a No. 6, in front of the back four, and a No. 8, the relay between defence and attack, but he has only rarely been given the chance to showcase his immense ability in the creative role of a No. 10. Tuesday afforded him another, and he seized it.

His impish creativity around the box and ability to shoot devastatingly from the same area made him a threat going forward, and he should have even had a goal in the closing stages, sending his effort over the bar.

But it is the more defensive side of his character that made him such a success in the position when Bayern lost the ball. Not that Muller does not work for the team—he clocked up the most kilometres of any Bayern player against Mainz—but Thiago has a better sense of the positions required to be taken up when teams counter-attack, enabling his side to apply pressure on opponents higher up the pitch.

That has been the Achilles' heel of Ancelotti's Bayern so far: getting caught short when possession has been turned over. Atletico—a counter-attack team par excellence—might have exploited that weakness, particularly with the pacy Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco in the side. Yet with Thiago dropping back instinctively to form an imposing three-man midfield, Diego Simeone's men were unable to play to their strengths.

"We switched back and forth between systems," said Hummels, per kicker (in German), highlighting the fluidity that was key to the 1-0 success before his boss summed things up neatly.

"We played well over 90 minutes, had a lot of control and were often in possession," Ancelotti said, per Bayern's official website (in German), post-match. "We managed to stop Atletico's counter-attacks."

That they did so was also down to the additional energy, aggression and quality afforded by Vidal and Sanches.

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Vidal, perhaps aware that his place in the side is under threat with competition so fierce, put in a classic man-of-the-match display and deservedly received that honour from UEFA. The Chile international was seemingly omnipresent: one minute halting Atletico, the next threatening at the opposite end by charging into the box.

Xabi Alonso, as marvellous a passer of the ball as he is, simply cannot play that role aged 35. His presence in midfield requires others to do increased legwork, one of the factors that has left Bayern open to counter-attacks this season.

His ability to circulate the ball quickly works wonders for Bayern in possession, but it is his diminishing ability to move his legs speedily that hinders them out of it. Vidal's seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy and determination counter that.

Of course, Alonso has few peers in terms of his ability to play a glorious pass that opens up opponents. Vidal does not have that quality, but the Atletico game suggested Sanches might.

The Portugal international's physical and footballing stature belie his 19 years. You may even argue that his rampaging forward runs that lift bums from stadium seats are wasted in such a deep role and that the Bayern prodigy's future should lie further up the pitch.

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Yet he showed in 90 minutes at the Allianz Arena he has more strings to his bow than previously imagined. His pass for Arjen Robben early in the second half that gave the Dutchman a goalscoring chance he wasted provided evidence he could also be the next Toni Kroos, a midfielder who can do absolutely everything.

The other advantage of the three playing together was that the rest of the team continued to function as they had done at Mainz. Robben and Douglas Costa were threats, though wasteful, Lewandowski too seemed to enjoy playing in the system that he had admitted after last weekend's league game was one he preferred, per Bild (in German).

Many people had written the game off as meaningless, but perhaps that is what eventually gave it a meaning. Would Ancelotti have been willing to experiment with this midfield trio against such an opponent if the stakes had been higher? Unlikely.

But now that he has, he knows he has a more than viable Plan B in midfield, one that affords the additional benefit of allowing him to use Muller as an ersatz Lewandowski, as he did for the last 10 minutes on Tuesday. Sanches, Vidal and Thiago may even have done enough to convince their boss that they should be his Plan A.