No1Fan wrote:more luck than aything in my opinion who has been his competition up until recently? odonkor? marin? asamoah? schneider?
People's memories are short prior to 2010 there was alot of garbage in the german national side. Podolski just happened to be around when germany didnt have many top quality options.
The only one from your list who was a competitor for his position was Marin
the other guys played RW or something else and besides Schneider who could play with both feet all of them are right foot players.
Bernd Schneider played for a crappy plastic club but he was a great footballer it's an insult to name him in the same sentence with Marin, Odonkor and Asamoah .. teach yourself and watch the WC final 2002 or the CL season 2001/2002 where he was the most important player for Leverkusen (they lost the final 2:1 against Real [the galacticos with Zidane aso.]) after that come back and tell me Schneider was shit ..
But to answer your question among others Schürrle, Götze (early stages of his national team career), Draxler, Großkreutz, Marin, Trochowski tried to grab his spot but finally it seems Reus managed to beat him.
What about WC 2010 ? By far the best tournament under Löw btw.
He started 6/7 matches (didn't play the "little final" (3rd place) and was only subbed once in the first match (4:0 against Australia).
Last time I checked he also started 4/5 (2/4 full time [Portugal, Netherlands]) matches (rested vs Greece) at EC 2012, Reus started one (Greece), his other competitor Schürrle also 1/5 (Greece) but on the other side of the pitch instead of Müller IIRC.
So much about none competition.