Jurgen Klinsmann says Robert Lewandowski can break his own record, stresses importance of Muller, Kimmich on German national team

In a recent interview with Bundesliga.com, former Bayern Munich, Germany and USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann said that he feels Robert Lewandowski can go on to break his own record of 41 goals in one Bundesliga season. He also stressed the importance that both Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich have in the German National team squad ahead of this summer’s European Championships.

Lewandowski’s record breaking season is self explanatory. What he was able to achieve in breaking Gerd Muller’s Bundesliga record was truly sensational, especially since he missed four weeks during a critical stretch of the ruckrunde with his knee injury. As long as he stays at Bayern, Klinsmannn feels that Lewandowski still has what it takes to take it one step further and break his own single season scoring record. The support cast, Klinsmann feels, helps him be able to achieve so much; “Robert Lewandowski can only set his own standards. What he did this year is just breathtaking. He’s a complete number nine, the like of which maybe we haven’t seen since Marco van Basten, 20, 25, 30 years ago. It’s so much fun to watch him and he’s supported by a group of players who constantly feed him the ball. He’s at one of the best clubs in the world, best teams in the world, so for him it’s probably doable, but the fact he broke that record is just an unbelievable story. Scoring that amount of goals is just insane and if there’s one to break it, it’s him. He’s still got a couple more years in him, if all goes smoothly.”

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Axeing Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels, and Jerome Boateng from Die Mannschaft was just one part of an overall plan from Joachim Low to start placing a heavy emphasis on integrating youth players into the senior squad. When he made that decision in March of 2019, it was met with harsh criticism and Muller, in particular, has enjoyed a fantastic two seasons with Bayern since he was dropped. Fast forward to now, just a few weeks out from the start of Euros and both Muller and Hummels have been recalled to Low’s squad.

In attack, Klinsmann said he feels Muller is going to play a crucial role in linkup play with the rest of Germany’s fire power up front. “Thomas Müller can play a big role in linking up with these young kids up front, whether it’s [Leroy] Sane, [Serge] Gnabry or Timo Werner, and help them — [Kai] Havertz is another one. They’re all still maturing, so that could be a big help,” he explained.

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Klinsmann also went on to highlight just how impressed he’s been with Kimmich over the past three to four years. He already seems him as a true leader for both Bayern and Die Mannschaft and feels that he will be a key player at the Euros this summer. “If there’s one particular player that I really admire throughout the last three or four years, it’s Joshua Kimmich. In such a short space of time, he became the leader of the Germany national team, the link you know, between defense and attack. He controls the tempo, he can speed it up or slow it down. I think he will be a key player for Germany going into the Euros,” Klinsmann said.