Now that the first half of Bayern Munich’s season has come to a close, it is the time to look back and see how the midfield did this season. Last year’s midseason midfield ratings saw it given a 3/10, a well deserved low score for a rather mediocre performance. Did this season’s midfield do better or were we Bayern fans given yet more reasons for disappointment from a talented but underperforming group? Let’s see:
#6 Joshua Kimmich
2,160 minutes, 1 goals, 6 assists
Score: 10/10
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Joshua Kimmich has been utterly unbelievable so far this season. Everybody thought his Bayern career was winding to a rather underwhelming end in the summer after the 2023/24 season was possibly his worst one in a Bayern shirt. Was it because he did not feel supported by Thomas Tuchel? Was it because the verbal assault from the German media finally got to him? Who knows? Considering his worst season still had him score Bayern’s winner in a tight Champions League clash with Arsenal FC, however, we can tell what kind of ridiculous standards Kimmich is working with.
And yet Kimmich has completely surpassed even these impossible standards this season. Backed by new head coach Vincent Kompany from day 1, Kimmich has been pulling the strings and running the show all season. He has not missed a single minute so far this season, playing every single minute of every single match, yet his performances do not seem to dip or seem affected by fatigue. To top it all off, he was named Germany’s permanent captain and has continued to lead Germany’s ascendancy back to the top of world football. Whether or not he extends his contract past 2025, it is good to see Kimmich perform at his best again and know that any goodbye would leave Bayern fans with a fittingly brilliant last impression of him.
#45 Aleksandar Pavlović
832 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist
Score: 9/10
It is easy to forget just how good Aleksandar Pavlović was to start the season, performing so well that €50 million signing João Palhinha and the previously undroppable Leon Goretzka could not get a sniff of first team football. He scored a phenomenal equalizer against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, too. However, we all know how his collarbone injury against VFB Stuttgart completely halted his momentum for the season, only for him to make a miraculous early return. The consequence of such an early return was that he looked not as good as he did earlier in the season, but that does not take away from the brilliant season Pavlović has had so far.
#8 Leon Goretzka
790 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist
Score: 7/10
It is funny how these things work out. Bayern’s new sporting team, Max Eberl and Christoph Freund, were determined to offload Leon Goretzka in the summer, suggesting that he simply would not find enough game time in Munich. Multiple months later, however, Goretzka has nearly eclipsed star youngster Pavlović’s minutes and even started ahead of the Bayern academy graduate in the crucial clash against Ballsport Leipzig. He did put in some noticeably poor performances, particularly against Saint Pauli and Bayer Leverkusen, and Bayern’s form notably dropped once he became a regular starter, but his good performances far outweighed his bad ones. He offers something so very different to every other player in midfield and remains important to the team, no matter the efforts taken to offload him. As Pavlović regains his fitness and Joâo Palhinha looks to regain fitness before the Bundesliga re-starts on January 11th, one has to wonder how much game time the 29-year-old will get in 2025. But one also gets the feeling that Goretzka inevitably finds his way back into the team in some capacity. After all, he always does.
#16 João Palhinha
614 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists
Score: 5/10
A 5/10 represents a perfectly average score and it seems to fit well with João Palhinha’s season. Eyebrows were raised when Bayern not only returned to sign the Portuguese from Fulham but also splashed over €50 million on the 29-year-old. And so far, Palhinah has not done enough to see those eyebrows go down. Kept out of the team by Pavlović, when he finally got his chance at an extended run in the team following the brilliant youngster’s unfortunate injury, he was…fine. He did not put in any noticeably poor performances but he did not stand out, either. In fact, he seemed like a bit of a foreign object at times in the team and struggled to keep up with the tempo of the passing. He did add the steel in midfield the Bavarians were looking for and executed several highlight reel worthy tackles, but he did not stand out at all either. Palhinha has been fine in a team full of phenomenal players, so he gets a 5/10.
Overall rating: 8/10
What an improvement it has been from last year. Joshua Kimmich’s own improvement is the highlight of the bunch, but Aleksandar Pavlović’s continued meteoric rise is also cause for celebration. Leon Goretzka’s consistency is utterly unbeatable, but João Palhinha’s start to life in Munich has been slightly underwhelming. All in all, despite some room for improvement, it is an overall midfield performance that Bayern fans can be very happy with.
Looking for some commentary and analysis on Bayern Munich’s first half of the season, including a suddenly red-hot Bundesliga title race, the biggest surprises and disappointment, along with where Bayern Munich can improve? Awesome, then check out our latest Bavarian Podcast Works Show on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
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