As Bayern Munich, surprisingly for many observers, continue to struggle to produce the kind of football that has come to be expected from them (they have won just one in their last five games), many players are having to pay dearly in the form of very low scores in the FTBL rankings, leaving the national squads as the only venue where to improve things.

Ukraine international Anatoliy Tymoshchuk earned 7.2 rating points in our system for the goalless draw against Greece in game 1 of their World Cup playoff last Saturday, but the game knocked out of his Last Five the Bayer’s loss to Bordeaux in the Champions League, in which he dropped 2.5 rating points; as a consequence, Tymoshchuk’s FTBL score has increased by approximately 10 rating points.

True, that score remains quite low at 63.26 points, but if Ukraine win at home, as expected, against Greece in game 2, Tymoshchuk could add another 10-12 rating points to his tally and finally improve his position in the FTBL world ranking of midfielders, where he now languishes below the 300–point mark, a ranking clearly unfit for a Bayern player.