Klose averaged < 0.4 goals per game in top flight leagues. I would say you need to be 0.5 to be dominant. Which Klose actually accomplished once with Werder Bremen.
My thought on Klose is that he massively benefitted from an excellent midfield (Ozil, Muller, Schweinsteiger, Reus, Kroos, Ballack) and zero competition at striker. I mean, Lukas freaking Podolski got 130 caps and 49 goals in the same timeframe. Mario Gomez had roughly the same style and skill as Klose and mostly lost out on playing time to him.
But yeah, I think Klose’s reputation is inflated (or maybe I overestimate what his reputation actually is).
Klose holds two records that speak for themselves, best German national scorer with 71 goals and best striker in the history of the WC with 16 goals. I think he was a very valuable player, a striker with a killer score quote, but never selfish and always willing to assist a better positioned teammate. I think he’s underrated, because he never was a flashy player with incredible dribbles and also not the fastest striker, but a goal and assist machine, scoring with his right foot, left foot and his head with regularity. Not to forget, he was one of the fairest players football ever had at that level.
Both of those records are a direct result of him being on a great team with no competition for the spot. If he was born in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, or Brazil he might have never made a WC roster, let alone 4. Again, Lukas Podolski, who sucks, played 130 games because Germany’s forward pool was so bad, and he scored 50 goals because their midfield was so good.
When he had to compete in a free market he was… well, he and Luca Toni overlapped for 3 years at Bayern. Klose scored 0.38 goals a game and Toni scored 0.65. He got his chance at a top team (Bayern) and washed out and played most of his career at second tier teams (Werder Bremen, Lazio). Which is fitting.
But you have to admit that he was the perfect striker for Germany for over 10 years. Here we have two expressions for what a good striker must have: “Torriecher”, a “smell for the goal”, which means an instinct to know when a situation allows to score. The second is “A striker must always know where the goal stands”, expressing a similar thought. Klose had both. I’m struggling to throw in a such a worn-out cliché, but in this case it’s true: we Germans judge our strikers by efficiency, not the beauty of their game. That’s why guys like Helmut Rahn, Uwe Seeler, Gerd Müller and Miro Klose are legends.
ETA: and yes, at the moment we are desperate for such a kind of striker. We would even take Horst Hrubesch back, the “Header Beast”…
Perfect has the connotation (to me at least) that something can’t be improved. And I think if Low had the ability to make some other striker German (Shevchenko, van Nistelrooy, Drogba, Forlan, Ronaldo, Zlatan, and Henry were born within a couple of years), he would have. So, I wouldn’t say perfect.
However, Klose can’t choose his competition or his teammates. He did well with the situation he had. You can’t complain too much with a WC.
The whole conversation started with me complaining about Flick sticking with 4-2-3-1 given Germany [lacks] “the kinds of strikers they’ve had in the past.” I’ll stick by that - Klose was excellent for that particular system, and like some players he played better internationally than he did at the club level.
Anyway, Italy was a train wreck today. They recently turned over literally everyone except Donarumma, and in the first match Germany didn’t take advantage of that, playing their usual build-up possession. This time they started Gündoğan with Kimmich and pressed non-stop, and the (new) Italian backline was in chaos. Italy did claw back two at the end.
I haven’t seen the whole game, but I just watched the highlights of Germany-Italy. I’ve never seen such a confused Italian defense. And of course I’ve never seen such an easy win for Germany over Italy. Kicker.de tells me it’s the highest win for Germany over Italy in 83 years…
Looks like Barcelona got Lewandowski. I’m torn, especially if they fail to sign Kounde. Aubameyang is a great striker, albeit a flake, and Barca’s problem has been defense for a long time. This is potentially a hail mary and sacrificing long term success.
Or he scores 60 goals and Barca win the treble.
ETA. If they don’t move anyone, they’ll have Dembele, Depay, Fati, Braithwaite, Torres, Aubameyang, Raphina, and Lewandowski up top. Some of those have to do. Probably whoever they can get the most for out of Depay/Torres. Maybe both if you’re confident in Fati’s health.
Barcelona’s Xavi was refused entry into the USA, where Barça is preparing the season, apparently because he was in Iran too often while he was player or trainer for some Gulf club.
And Lewandowski seems to have signed for four seasons, which is not bad for him, considering he is 34.
German striker legend Uwe Seeler (“Uns Uwe”) dies at 85 years. He never won a World Cup or Euro (though he was close in 1966 and 1970. Everybody remembers his back-header goal in the quarter final of 1970 against England). But he was just the most friendly, authentic, fair and simply likable human being you can imagine and thus maybe the most popular footballer Germany ever had. A real mensch.
This is his monumental statue in front of the stadium of his home club Hamburger SV, the only club he ever played for. A fitting tribute to a footballer if there ever was one.
xavi was allowed in, just had some visa issues. think the lewandowski issue is just spreading his salary over 4 years because of their financial issues.
Most windows close September 1st. Barcelona just sold a player to LA and apparently didn’t negotiate much since MLS’s window closes this week and Barcelona really wants to move a couple players on.
If it’s not required for financial reasons, I hope Barca keep FDJ. I still have a lot of faith he’ll have a great career. Perhaps even in defense. I’d prefer Busquet’s role to be decreased though. He’s still good on the ball, but he’s laughable unathletic and unable to deal with a fast break or broken possession.
I know he’d like to stay, but my understanding is they can’t even register the new or re-contracted players for league play until they get their finances in better order, which is where I came up with the August date… so his sale to Man U could be some part of that financial strengthening.
they have sold stadium, media and image rights. most people will think this is dangerous but it is what i thought they should have done after neymar left. you have messi going into his prime and you are looking at great returns anyway with him, so why not double down and refinance the whole club for 10-20 years and bet it all on leo to take the club to the next level? sportsbetting3.com still have fcb as most likely place for him to go but this should have been done years ago, signing the best players in the world to put around messi until he retires.
