Euro 2024: How Germany are looking for way around lack of world-class striker – BBC Sport

For generations of football fans, a Germany side at a major tournament would be led by a prolific forward who would strike fear into opposition teams across the world – just by seeing his name on the team sheet.

In the early 1970s it was Gerd Muller for West Germany, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge straddled the 1970s and 80s, with Rudi Voller taking over through to the early 1990s and Jurgen Klinsmann then coming to prominence, before Miroslav Klose broke records to become his country’s all-time leading scorer.

But Klose retired from international football in 2014. In the decade since, Germany have had talented forwards, but no-one so deadly at the point of their attack as the aforementioned players.

“It is a huge point in our country,” former Germany international Steffen Freund told BBC Sport.

“We always had someone who scored goals in the past – Muller, Klinsmann, Voller and more recently Klose.

“But since Klose we don’t have a really world-class striker and that is why we are maybe not top of the world.”

At this summer’s European Championship it is Arsenal’s Kai Havertz who is most likely to lead the line, but he is not seen as an out-and-out forward in the traditional sense.

So what has happened to Germany’s world-class strikers?

The Germans have an international record that is the envy of many countries.

They have won the World Cup four times (three of those as West Germany) and the European Championship three times (twice as West Germany).

But since winning that fourth title in Brazil in 2014 their form at major tournaments has been poor, failing to get beyond the group stage at the past two World Cups and winning just one game at Euro 2020.

One of the issues that could be attributed to their decline is a lack of goals. In the four major tournaments they have played in since the 2014 World Cup they have scored 21 goals, compared with 50 in the four prior to it.

The start of a change in how the German team played could perhaps be pinpointed to 2010, when Spain won the World Cup playing with a false nine – a forward operating in deeper positions – instead of a striker.

Vicente del Bosque’s side knocked Joachim Low’s Germany out in the semi-finals, with Low full of praise for how their opponents played, describing them as “masters of the game”.

After that Low appeared to follow Spain’s blueprint, naming just two forwards in his 2014 World Cup squad – the 36-year-old Klose and Lukas Podolski, then of Arsenal.

During Germany’s run to the final Low often favoured playing without an out-and-out striker, with Mario Gotze regularly deployed in the false nine role.

“Low wanted to pick the best players and try to fit them into a system, rather than just picking a random player who might be a decent striker but would start only because he was available, basically,” says German football writer Constantin Eckner.

“There wasn’t really a plan behind it, it was more out of necessity.”

It would be simple to suggest that if playing without an out-and-out striker is no longer working – why don’t Germany just start calling them up again?

But the problem is the country has a lack of them, and that stems from youth development.

“When you look at the youth teams in Germany, like the under-19s or under-17s of the big Bundesliga clubs, you see a lot of talented wingers, a lot of talented playmakers, but you don’t see many highly skilled strikers,” Eckner adds.

“It is almost like the one guy who is tall and doesn’t have the best technique ends up playing as a striker. Then when they are promoted to the Bundesliga, being technically limited hinders you. It is really tough to break out of the academy and be a competent Bundesliga striker.”

Germany’s 2018 World Cup failure, in which they finished bottom of a group containing Sweden, Mexico and South Korea, appeared to shock the country’s decision-makers into action.

Critics of Germany’s youth development say the system had become too rigid, with children not getting the freedom to express themselves and just have fun.

Two years ago, the German football federation announced plans to revolutionise its youth framework, with more focus on children being able to do what they enjoy – scoring goals.

“Playing with the ball and scoring goals are the main reasons why so many children and young people enjoy football,” the DFB said at the time.

The new forms of play introduced involved more smaller-sided games, so that players had more touches of the ball – the idea being it would improve their skills and confidence and lower the number of dropouts from children who were getting bored of not being involved.

Professor Matthias Lochmann, a former professional footballer and under-15s coach at Mainz when Jurgen Klopp was manager there, lobbied hard for several years for such changes to be made.

In 2018, following Germany’s World Cup exit, he gave a keynote speech on the issue and what should be done, catching the eye of Hansi Flick, who had recently been sporting director of the German football association and would go on to manage the national team.

“We had very good discussions about this,” Lochmann told BBC Sport.

“He always said to me we have to implement all these ideas, as the sooner it will come the better it will be.

“He recommended it internally to accelerate this process, but his influence was limited.”

While changes have been implemented at youth level, Lochmann feels it is happening far too slowly to have an impact on the national team in the medium-term future, let alone any time soon.

“Germany going out early in the last World Cup helped to push this innovation,” he added.

“It is stupid to say this as a German, but hopefully in the European Championship we will also go out and then the changes happen faster.”

It looks most likely that Havertz will spearhead Germany’s attack, having enjoyed an impressive season for Arsenal.

The 24-year-old scored 14 goals in all competitions for the Gunners last season.

He is, however, another player who started out as an attacking midfielder and has been converted into a centre-forward.

Borussia Dortmund’s Niclas Fullkrug is Germany’s only real out-and-out striker option. He was the top scorer in the Bundesliga in 2022-23 and scored 15 goals in all competitions last season, but time is running out for him already on the international stage.

He did not make his senior debut until 2022, is now 31 and would probably accept himself that he is a very good striker, but not a world-class one.

But they fall into the category of hugely talented forwards who provide flair and tempo to the team, not players to start in the centre of the attack.

The question of who leads the line for Germany at the European Championship is something that has the country’s supporters split.

“Some fans want to see Fullkrug as the more traditional number nine, especially as in a sense it would be reminiscent of past number nines who have brought success for Germany,” Eckner adds.

“But some would prefer a fast player up front like Havertz. Germany excite their fans the most when they play a fast-paced style.”

For Euro 2024 at least, Germany do have the option to mix things up in attack, but it seems fans who are waiting for the next Muller or Klinsmann to emerge may be waiting some time.