Miroslav Klose has joined the podcast Spielmacher critical of Louis van Gaal. The former striker worked with the trainer at Bayern Munich between 2009 and 2011, and looks back on that period with mixed feelings.

Klose was under contract with Bayern between 2007 and 2011. He then played for Lazio for a number of years, before ending his professional career in 2016.

In the podcast Spielmacher the German looks back on his playing career and is asked, among other things, who is the best trainer he has had. “I have never had a top coach who had expertise, personality and tactics, so the whole package,” Klose begins his answer.

“But when it comes to expertise, I thought Van Gaal was the best,” he is positive. Yet the now 45-year-old Klose is not only positive about Van Gaal.

“It was difficult. We didn't click at all. I wasn't number ten, but he saw me as number ten. That's why I always had to play in that position,” said Germany's all-time top scorer. “If there was something I wasn't, it was a number ten. On a human level, Van Gaal was far behind.”

The 137-time international is now also a trainer himself: at SCR Altach, in the Austrian Bundesliga. He admits that his weaker relationship with Van Gaal has helped him a lot, now that he is a trainer himself.

“We hardly communicated with each other, but I learned a lot from that time. I sat on the bench and didn't play much, but I learned a lot as a player. Now that I am a trainer myself, that is a big advantage.”

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