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Thomas Muller’s incredible return of 32 goals from 49 matches in all competitions for Bayern Munich last season had many prognosticators envisioning a brilliant Euro 2016 campaign for the German attacker. However, Muller’s inability to score and poor form throughout Germany’s six matches made him one of the tournament’s biggest disappointments.
While Muller has scored braces against Norway and the Czech Republic in World Cup qualifying, he hasn’t yet managed a goal in the Bundesliga, a drought that’s now surpassed over 500 minutes of football.
#FoxAlgeria #Foot Thomas Muller's brace makes it 3-0 against Czech Republic | 2016 E... https://t.co/FC5NoQ0uce #Algerie #الجزائر
— Fox Algeria (@FoxAlgeria) October 9, 2016
This bad patch of form for the 27-year-old seems to be weighing heavily on his mind, especially after playing for 90 minutes against European minnows San Marino on Friday night and being held off the scoresheet while Germany thrashed their opponents 8-0.
“Matches like the one against San Marino have nothing to do with professional football,” said Muller after the match. “I don’t understand the point of such uneven games like these, even more so because of the crowded fixture list.
“I understand that for them it is special to play against the world champions. I understand also that they can only defend with tough tackling. For this reason, I wonder if these are not games which bring unnecessary risks.”
While San Marino, with a population of just over 33,000, is a team of semiprofessionals who’ve only managed a single goal in four qualifying matches, they did not take kindly to Muller’s jabs — particularly San Marino’s director of communications, Alan Gasperoni.
Gasperoni made a ten-point response to Muller, saying that the match “served to show you that not even against the teams as poor as ours can you score a goal - and don’t say you weren’t pissed when [goalkeeper] Simoncini stopped you from scoring…”
Gasperoni also claimed that the match showed that football is not owned by the privileged, that “Germans will never change and that history has taught you that ‘bullying’ is not always a guarantee of victory” and that while Germany have beautiful kits, Germans still put white socks on under their sandals. Ouch.
German manager Joachim Low has since defended Muller’s comments, saying: “We started the match with all respect. We said that we were out to score as many goals as possible. We did that.
“But you can’t compare San Marino to other teams or playing in the Champions League. They were just not professional players. In this respect, Thomas Muller was right.”
Muller and Germany return to action on Tuesday for a friendly against Italy in a rematch of their Euro 2016 quarterfinal clash.
