Dries Mertens says he and former Napoli teammate Gonzalo Higuain “are still friends” as he wants to be considered a No 9, not a false nine.
Higuain was Mertens’ strike partner at Napoli before the former’s controversial switch to Juventus for an Italian-record €90m last summer, but the Belgian has inadvertently become the Argentine’s heir at the San Paolo.
Dries Mertens says he and former Napoli teammate Gonzalo Higuain “are still friends” as he wants to be considered a No 9, not a false nine.
Higuain was Mertens’ strike partner at Napoli before the former’s controversial switch to Juventus for an Italian-record €90m last summer, but the Belgian has inadvertently become the Argentine’s heir at the San Paolo.
“I think I know what people want to say when they use that false nine because I’m not a big guy who can keep the ball and who can do what people have in their mind as the image of a striker,” he added to Bleacher Report.
“But football changes, and the way teams play changes. I think with the goals I’ve scored now, I think we can leave the ‘false’ and say I’m just a No 9.
“Michael Owen, he was born as a striker. I was never born as a striker. That’s why sometimes I can make mistakes in front of goal.
“Higuain? We’re friends; he texts me to congratulate me when I do well. But I know that in the end he wants to be ahead of me.
“Like Michael Owen, he was born like this. He wakes up in the morning, and all he sees is the goal.
“He feels like a No 9 on the inside, and his shirt says No 9 as well. For me, No 9 or No 14 is the same.
“Before, I would always have said that an assist was as satisfying as a goal. But now I see that, as a striker, when you don’t score, [people say] you played badly.
“When you score, even if you played badly, you’re good. That’s all people see when you’re playing as a striker, so it’s important to score goals. So from now on, I’m scoring goals.”