Miroslav Klose: FIFA World Cup winner turned coach talks the art of goalscoring
It was agreed that we would meet with Miroslav Klose as the first job of the day after he arrives at Nuremberg’s training ground. That meant 7.30am. Hard work and being meticulous have always been a part of Klose’s character, whether in his first job as a carpenter or as a world-class striker and now as a coach. It’s all paid off so far, as Germany’s record goalscorer reveals when talking at length to BUNDESLIGA Magazine.
Miroslav Klose, do you still score goals as a coach during your team’s training sessions?
Miroslav Klose: “Out of around 300 goals I scored during my professional career, I only got two from outside the penalty area. It’s probably better for me not to be involved in shooting practice. I don’t want to show anyone how not to do it [laughs]. I mostly have a few shots after training if some players want to do extra crossing practice or a striker needs someone to play off.”
Do you automatically imagine yourself in front of goal again when one of your players has a chance in a game?
Klose: “You have some thoughts, yes. Sprint into the middle. Shoot first time. And then I see that my players do things mostly right anyway.”
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Does a striker have enough time in front of goal to think about such things like shooting first time?
Klose: “It’s mostly an unconscious thought process. Before every game, you study your opponents’ movements in the video analysis. Does the goalkeeper make himself big or small when facing close-range shots? Am I better off shooting over his shoulder because he keeps his hands quite low? That analysis means you go into games with a few clear ideas of how you want to shoot or head the ball, and you end up doing those things automatically.”
When you’re shooting, do you see where the goalkeeper is or do you only have an inclination?
Klose: “It differs. Sometimes you sense him, a bit like a shadow. In other situations, things go so quickly that you just speculate, like the goalkeeper should now be moving towards the far post because the cross is going deep. So, you instinctively want to put your shot in the other direction.”
And then?
Klose: “Precision is always more important than power in shooting.”
When you started out playing at Kaiserslautern, you tried to copy your role model Olaf Marschall’s shooting technique. Did it work?
Klose: “Out of 10 dropkicks, Olaf hit nine perfectly. It was just two out of 10 with me. I watched how he positioned his shoulders, his hips, his foot when he hit the ball. It was all a fluid movement with him. Like him with the ball dropping, I turned my upper body fully towards goal, both shoulders level, in contrast to other strikers who were more skewed. My dropkicks looked a bit more like Olaf Marschall’s, but I still only hit two out of 10 perfectly [laughs].”
Is scoring goals mostly about instinct over technique?
Klose: “You need to have that nose for it to be able to sniff out where the ball will go, where there’s space between defenders. But you’re not just born with instinct. You can improve it through experience, by always analysing the opponents’ movements.”
Does a goalscorer always have to think just about scoring goals? Does he have to be selfish?
Klose: “I never played in a selfish way. I always tried to recognise where there was a greater probability of scoring a goal, whether I shoot myself or whether I can pass to play my strike partner into a better position.”
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Your close friend, Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni, would disagree there. “Luca was just goals, goals, goals,” your former coach at Bayern Munich, Ottmar Hitzfeld, once said.
Klose: “There will always be strikers like Luca who think mostly about scoring themselves. But they can’t play nowadays like they did 15 years ago. While we defended, he could wait for his next chance. Now every striker has to press, close down the space. I once told Luca: ‘Stay in the box. You just create chaos out of it’.”
The tactic of playing without a classic centre-forward but more with a false nine isn’t as hip anymore.
Klose: “Thankfully. Teams are better with someone who guarantees goals.”
You mentioned the two goals you scored from outside the penalty area. That sounds like, even with all the goals you scored, that those two have stuck with you.
Klose: “Absolutely. One was for Lazio against Cesena, the other against Chievo.”
So right at the end of your long career.
Klose: “I left myself a bit of time for them.”
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