After ten competitive games, Joshua Kimmich returned to the center of FC Bayern Munich against Hertha BSC – and how! The 26-year-old shone in (almost) every respect in the 4-1 win.
Joshua Kimmich prepared FC Bayern’s second and fourth goal against Hertha BSC directly, but he was also involved in the third: when he celebrated afterwards he grabbed goal scorer Leroy Sane three times in the face with wild flickering in his eyes. Kimmich himself felt it as a pat, but in fact it looked more like a hit.
Was it pure joy? Was it praise for Sane’s strong start and ball win before the shot on goal? Was it a motivation boost for more goals? It was only 3-0 at the time. Or was it all at once? In any case, it was Joshua Kimmich in his purest form. It was a sequence that screamed, The Aggressive Leader is back. Keep going!
In the 4-1 win at Hertha BSC, Kimmich played in his natural habitat on the six for the first time since the beginning of November, for the first time in ten competitive games. In the center of the field, where he can push colleagues in all four directions, which of course he did. Right up to the ranks of the Berlin Olympic Stadium – which are far away from the field because of the lush running track – you could feel how Kimmich wanted to seize the game. The return to six seemed to have triggered something in him.
Kimmich missed a total of eight games due to various quarantines, his own corona infection and the resulting lung infiltration. In the first two games after the Christmas break, he had to help out as a right-back due to staff shortages. “It’s fun to be back on the pitch,” said Kimmich after the game in Berlin and laughed – in fact, he probably meant: up his Place. Incidentally, he no longer feels anything from the consequences of his illness: “Everything is completely fine again.”
Joshua Kimmich’s stellar stats
In the course of the extensive vaccination debates, it was almost possible to forget what a fit Kimmich gives the FC Bayern game in the center. In Berlin he dominated with a constant presence, energetic duels and important runs. The numbers for the gala: Kimmich recorded 149 ball actions, by far the most of any player on the pitch. He won 75 percent of his direct duels. He ran 12.57 kilometers, more than a kilometer more than Benjamin Pavard, who was second in this ranking.
But it wasn’t just these hard factors that distinguished Kimmich. Above all, it was the soft ones in the form of well-considered interface passes and other shots on goal. Kimmich prepared eight degrees, and of course that was also the best. The pass to Kingsley Coman before his missed chance in the 16th minute, the free kick pass to Thomas Müller before the 2:0 and the pass to Serge Gnabry before the 4:0 deserve special mention.
“He played three outstanding balls deep,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann, who also praised Kimmich’s ball wins and generally attested him a “very, very good game”. “It is very important that you have a six that also wants the ball and has the necessary ball security.” In Kimmich’s otherwise flawless performance in Berlin, the only thing that could be improved was his corner balls, many of which did not land with teammates.
FC Bayern also won without Joshua Kimmich
In terms of results, FC Bayern got along quite well even without Kimmich in the six: During his game and subsequent absence from the centre, the Munich team eventually won eight out of ten games. In the Bundesliga, it’s usually enough for them if they can’t fill all the positions with the ideal cast – especially since Kimmich’s congenial center field partner Leon Goretzka has been out since the beginning of December due to problems with the patellar tendon.
The two were represented by Marc Roca and Corentin Tolisso, and the 27-year-old Frenchman in particular knew how to impress. While Roca had to sit on the bench in Berlin, Tolisso stayed in the starting XI and crowned his strong performance alongside Kimmich with a goal of his own, as he did in the 4-0 win at 1. FC Köln the week before. Tolisso’s contract expires in the summer, and the arguments for an extension are becoming increasingly overwhelming.
Joshua Kimmich: “We’re on the right track”
Kimmich himself only last summer prematurely extended until 2025, in the meantime he wants to win the Champions League at least four times with his ambition. The European competition seems to be the only serious challenge for FC Bayern at the moment. In the Bundesliga, the tenth title win in a row is imminent, the attacks from pursuers Borussia Dortmund are easily repelled, the lead is still six points. On this matchday, FC Bayern countered a narrow 3:2 by BVB at TSG Hoffenheim with the impressive 4:1 gala in Berlin.
“We showed a good game and controlled the game for 90 minutes. It could have gone higher,” said Kimmich succinctly. The biggest criticisms after the game were actually small ones: the conversion of chances, Dayot Upamecano’s lapse before conceding a goal and the missing goal from striker Robert Lewandowski. “We’re on the right track and we have to keep showing performances like this.”
Kimmich said these sentences with a view to the upcoming knockout phase of the Champions League, where RB Salzburg will play in the round of 16 (first leg in mid-February). Probably with Kimmich in the center, a transfer back seems currently impossible due to the now more relaxed personnel situation. “I know that he prefers to play inside, but he doesn’t have to tell me that every week,” explained Nagelsmann, when asked about the position debate about Kimmich. “I wrote that in my notebook and I’ll remember it.”
