A reimagined version of Heynckes' 2012—13 team could be a convenient and familiar environment for him in the modern period.
Didn't want to use him as a pure playmaking central midfielder with a limited dominion because that would adulterate the essence of what made him such a special footballer with a knack of being in the right space at the right time in different parts of the pitch (that rare multidimensional foresight as a libero was how the comparisons with Frenkie first cropped up, not just because the Dutchman was nonchalantly elegant on the ball). In the aforementioned XI, he would not reprise Martínez's exact function per se — but interpret things as he saw fit in combination with his pivot-partner Schweinsteiger (who was a force of nature back then and a genuine do-it-all type).
Yes, he would make things smoother and more organized in possession as a mobile regista of sorts, but also blur the lines between midfield and defense on occasion, intelligently drive the ball from one box to the other and serve as the primary reference point for defensive-to-midfield transitions (things he might not get to do as a mere pass-master interior, for example). A vast and seemingly super-human remit, but I think you
should push inimitable giants like Beckenbauer to their theoretical limits — where's the fun in coddling them and giving them simplistic instructions like you would with more down-to-earth players? Plenty of guile, movement and rigor around him to accentuate his foremost qualities as well.
