Klose Says Every Team Still Needs a Box Striker

Germany’s all-time top scorer Miroslav Klose has said football has rightly moved away from the false nine, insisting every side still needs a striker whose job is to score goals, in an interview with BBC Sport.

The 48-year-old, now head coach of FC Nuremberg, scored more than 300 goals in a career that took him through Germany’s amateur leagues to Kaiserslautern, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Lazio. He believes all but two of them came inside the penalty area.

“You need someone in the box because that’s where you’re closest to the goal,” Klose told the BBC.

Miroslav Klose on the final ball

Klose said that is why he puts great weight on practising the final ball, whether a cross or a shot. He told the BBC that when players build automatic patterns and get to know one another, the team plays in harmony, which can look effortless but takes a huge amount of work and attention to detail in training.

That focus on detail goes back to his playing days, when he studied opponents’ movement and how goalkeepers positioned themselves and set their hands when facing certain shots. He said the whole team deserves credit for goals, but someone still needs the ability to put the ball in the net.

Klose scored 16 goals across four World Cups, a total that only Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have now beaten. He was 36 when he won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, passing Ronaldo’s scoring record during the 7-1 semi-final win over hosts Brazil, having lost the 2002 final to Brazil.

Kane held up as a role model

Born in communist Poland, Klose moved to West Germany with his family at the age of eight. He never came through a big academy, instead playing in the lower leagues while training as a carpenter before joining Kaiserslautern. Like Harry Kane, he was in his early 20s before he established himself in top-flight football.

Klose, who retired at 38, told the BBC he admires how the Ballon d’Or winner has developed and uses him as an example for his own young players, partly because Kane has stayed in Germany.

He said young players cannot yet have Kane’s instinct and experience, but must keep learning and understand that they train to get better, warning that those who believe the praise of people around them may stop developing.

#latestmalaysia

Liverpool Beat Palace 3-1 as Sunderland Stun Chelsea