Football
ESPN staff 8y

Thomas Muller concerned by Germany's lack of strikers

Thomas Muller has bemoaned Germany's lack of strikers ahead of their opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Norway.

The world champions have an embarrassment of riches creatively with Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Mario Gotze, Julian Draxler, Leroy Sane and Muller among the many options Joachim Low can call upon.

But in the traditional No. 9 role the Germans have a shortage of options with Gotze often used as a lone forward or more recently Mario Gomez has been recalled.

"Of course, we have few options in this central position," Muller told Bild. "It's been known for some time that this is a fundamental problem in Germany, because there's not a lot of choice.

"Mario Gotze has already done very well. But in the course of a game it would be nice if you could call on a beefier option. There's only Mario Gomez."

Muller believes Germany have strayed from their own traditional footballing principles by attempting to copy the technical football that brought Spain success in the last decade.

"In recent years it was that the footballing and technical elements were very much in mind," he added. "In positions where these properties are required, we have an oversupply.

"It was thought that we must go in the Spanish direction. One can see, however, that it is necessary to have the penalty area striker variant."

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