Robert Lewandowski's hunt for Gerd Müller's age-old record is electrifying the Bundesliga. The Pole needs just one more goal to equal the 40-goal mark set by Der Bomber in the 1971/72 season. In an interview with the FCB club magazine "51", Bayern legends explain what makes Lewandowski so special - and why he can make history this season. In part four, Roy Makaay has his say. The Dutchman scored a total of 78 goals in 129 Bundesliga appearances during his playing career and has already gone down in footballing history as the scorer of the fastest Champions League goal of all time.
Part 4: Roy Makaay on the art of scoring
Roy Makaay's most successful Bundesliga season in terms of goals was 2003/04, when he scored 23 times for Bayern.
"For me, Gerd Müller will always be the best. No-one actually thought it would ever be possible to break his 40-goal record, even though the media regularly speculated about it. In 2005/06, I had scored six goals after the first three games, and the newspapers were already making projections. I just thought: let it go, it's far too early for that. In the end, I scored 17 goals. But now Robert is actually within reach of Gerd. It's been an incredible year for him: six titles with Bayern, being voted the Best FIFA Men's Player, plus many other personal awards. But Robert doesn't play selfishly. He knows that to score goals, he needs the team.
Efficiency comes before style
After scoring a hat-trick against Stuttgart at the end of March, he was substituted after 70 minutes - and accepted it without complaint. He's ambitious, but in the right way. What I find so good about Robert is that as a striker he does exactly what is necessary. It doesn't matter to him what kind of goals he scores. For him, a goal is a goal. That's what I've always said, too. Of course a goal of the month is magnificent - but it only counts once. Efficiency is more important than style in football. It's about somehow getting the ball on target, forcing the goalkeeper to act, that's the only way to score a goal.
Robert's interplay with Thomas Müller is perfect. Each of them knows exactly how the other wants the ball. Thomas and the whole team naturally want to help Robert to score 40 goals. But it's important they continue to play their normal game - and not try to pass the ball only to Robert. Otherwise it won't work. So: Just keep playing, the chances for Robert to score will come by themselves. It's unbelievable how many goals Robert has scored in the last few years. The older he gets, the better he seems to get. If anyone deserves to break Gerd Müller's record, it's him."
In part 3 of the series, Giovane Élber talked about getting encouragement from Gerd Müller and his admiration for the two great strikers:
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