Bundesliga Team of the Decade: Lewandowski & Aubameyang form awesome attack

In the past decade, one goalkeeper has won seven Bundesliga titles. Nobody else could come close to representing the German top-flight in a team of the decade than Manuel Neuer.

The Bayern Munich number one has been a crucial cog in the club's dominance, ushering in a new era of sweeper-keepers thanks to his ability to play out from the back and be the starting point for every Bayern attack.

As well as that, Neuer has been one of the most consistent shot stoppers in the world, being named in the FIFPro World XI three times and even winning Footballer of the Year in Germany twice in the 2010s.

Regarded as one of the best right-backs of his generation, Philipp Lahm was such a complete footballer that Pep Guardiola utilised him in midfield during his time in charge of Bayern Munich.

Guardiola called Lahm "the most intelligent player I ever coached" and even claimed he could play in every position, not just full-back or midfield. Wherever he played for Bayern, Lahm was effective, winning five Bundesliga titles in the 2010s to add to the three he had lifted in the previous decade.

He retired in 2017 and was immediately inducted into the Bayern Munich Hall of Fame.

After one frustrating season at Manchester City in 2010-11, Jerome Boateng returned home to his native Germany where he became the Bundesliga's best defender for the best part of a decade.

Man City's loss was Bayern Munich's gain as Boateng became a €17 million bargain for the Bavarians, playing nearly 300 games for the club where he commanded the defence to seven straight domestic titles

He has been regularly linked with moves away and even held talks with Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, but such is his importance to the club, Boateng remains in Munich where he is still a regular at the back.

Only two sides won the Bundesliga in the 2010s, but Mats Hummels has played for both, lifting the trophy twice at Borussia Dortmund and then three times at Bayern Munich.

He returned to Dortmund at the start of the 2019-20 season, hoping to be the missing piece they need to end Bayern's domestic dominance.

Composed on and off the ball, the centre-back is one of the best readers of the game in world football and his outstanding abilities meant that he was warmly welcomed back to Dortmund despite leaving them for Bayern three years earlier.

Like Philipp Lahm, David Alaba's versatility means that he has played in a number of positions for club and country. For Austria, he is used as a central midfielder where he can dictate the play, but at Bayern Munich, he is their first-choice left-back, defending from the front and delivering accurate dead balls and set-pieces to trouble opposition defenders.

His first full season with the Bavarians came in 2011-12, and by the next year he had cemented his place in the starting XI as Bayern started their journey to seven titles in a row.

They broke their transfer record to sign France left-back Lucas Hernandez in the summer, but he has been used in the centre of defence as Alaba cannot be displaced.

Not many players have the luxury of bowing out when they are at the top of the game. Arjen Robben was one of the lucky ones, calling time on his career in 2019 after winning his 20th trophy with Bayern Munich.

The former Chelsea and Real Madrid winger brought his signature move to Munich, with opposition defenders knowing exactly what Robben was planning but being totally unable to stop it.

Instead of running down the right wing, the Dutchman would cut inside onto his stronger left foot and curl the ball into the net past the goalkeeper with unerring accuracy, meaning he became one of the world's most potent attacking weapons.

Bastian Schweinsteiger left Bayern Munich in 2015 to complete a long-discussed transfer to Manchester United, having played exactly 500 times for the German giants. He signed off with a goal in his last game, having helped the club to their third consecutive league title.

Three of his eight Bundesliga titles came in the 2010s, masterminding the midfield as Borussia Dortmund's two-year stay at the top was brought to an end. That year, 2013, he also was named Footballer of the Year in Germany.

Marco Reus joined Borussia Dortmund in 2012, having scored 28 goals in his previous two campaigns with Borussia Monchengladbach. His arrival should have helped Dortmund continue their run as Bundesliga champions, but Bayern Munich invested heavily to return themselves to the summit.

BVB, however, are the only team to come close to stopping Bayern's dominance in recent years thanks to the talismanic Reus, who has been somewhat hampered by injury during his career.

Despite injuries, he continues to improve and recorded a career-high 17 league goals in 2018-19 as Dortmund took the title fight to the last day of the season.

Part of the wing duo affectionately known as 'Robbery', Frank Ribery formed an amazing partnership with Robben that terrorised defences in Germany and Europe.

Ribery dominated the Bundesliga for the past decade, winning seven of his nine league titles in the 2010s. Even at 36 years old, he was coming off the bench to be a difference-maker for Bayern.

Such was his importance, the club are still struggling to find a permanent replacement for him.

Only one of five people not named Robert Lewandowski to finish as Bundesliga top scorer since 2010-11, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made the race for the league's top scorer competitive during his time at Borussia Dortmund.

The Gabon international netted 31 goals in 2016-17, the most by any player in a single season in 40 years. Over five seasons at Dortmund, Aubameyang scored 98 league goals in 144 appearances.

Even in his final campaign when he left for Arsenal in January and played just half a season, Aubameyang finished just two goals shy of the runner-up for top scorer.

In the past decade, Robert Lewandowski has finished as the Bundesliga top scorer five times. He is likely to win the trophy again for 2019-20 and shows no signs of slowing down.

In that time, he has also won the league title seven times - twice with Borussia Dortmund and then five more times after switching to Bayern Munich.

Since arriving in Germany in 2010, he has scored more than 200 league goals and has reached 40 goals in all competitions every season for the past four campaigns.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar deserves mention as one of the best strikers of the past decade and even finished top scorer while at Schalke. Stefan Kiessling also took that trophy home in 2013, but saw his goals decline for Bayer Leverkusen as the decade continued.

Similarly, Eintracht Frankfurt's Alexander Meier is one of a handful of people to reach double figures in three separate seasons, with his tally of 19 enough to be named top scorer in 2014-15. Max Kruse now plays in Turkey but made an impact at Freiburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg and especially Werder Bremen in the past few years.

Toni Kroos won two league titles this decade before leaving Bayern Munich for Real Madrid and many fans are still hung up on the fact the club let him go. Thiago has replaced him in the Bayern midfield and has won the league in every single season he has played.

No goalkeeper could match Manuel Neuer, but Yann Sommer has tried to take that mantle in the second half of the 2010s. Roman Weidenfeller lifted two Bundesliga titles at the start of the decade but has been replaced by Roman Burki in recent years.

Similarly, Joshua Kimmich has tried to step into the Philipp Lahm role at Bayern Munich and is already one of their key players. Centre-back Naldo was dominant at both ends of the pitch for Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg and Schalke in the past decade, while Thomas Muller has scored 100 Bundesliga goals in that time period.

Shinji Kagawa was hugely impressive during his two spells at Borussia Dortmund and Kevin De Bruyne was one of the league's best players in the two-and-a-half seasons he played in Germany.

Claudio Pizarro shows no signs of slowing down and, even at 41, continues to score for Werder Bremen.

So, there you have it, our Bundesliga Team of the Decade!

But what do you make of our selections? Are there any glaring omissions, in your opinion?

Post your thoughts – and your own line-ups – in the comments...