Since he broke through into Bayern Munich’s first team for Bayern Munich, at one point or another, Joshua Kimmich has virtually played every position for the Rekordmeister bar either goalkeeper or striker. He has established himself in recent seasons as one of the core leaders of the club and he is pegged to be one of the future captains of the club once Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller split that role.
Most of last season for both Bayern and Germany, Kimmich was deputized at right back by Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann, respectively. For both club and country, he was tactically used there mostly out of necessity with the personnel that both managers had available, but he has made it clear throughout his Bayern and Germany career that he does have a preference to playing in midfield, whether it is for club or country.
After consulting with both Max Eberl and Christoph Freund, new manager Vincent Kompany made the decision to move Kimmich back to midfield since the club now has both Aleksandar Pavlović and João Palhinha at their disposal to act as more defensive midfielders. For Kompany, he does not see Kimmich as a number 6, defensive midfielder so the presence of the two aforementioned, more defensive-minded midfielders gives Kimmich the necessary attacking and creating freedom he needs to flourish.
Even with the tactical maneuvering for this season from Kompany, Kimmich recently revealed that he is happy wherever he is used for Bayern, so long as he is playing. “I’ve often said that regardless of whether I’m playing in midfield or right-back, I don’t feel unhappy or happy. I’m happy as long as I’m on the pitch. The way we want to play football [under Kompany] is a bit different. We want to press higher, press man against man. We also have other principles on the ball. That was to be seen in the first half against Wolfsburg. The second half wasn’t as good. We’ll continue to work on that,” Bayern’s number 6 recently explained (via @iMiaSanMia).
Photo by Jürgen Fromme – firo sportphoto/Getty Images
Of course, there are absolutely no guarantees in football and there could very well come a point in time where Kompany might have to use Kimmich in defense. Josip Stanišić returned from a loan spell with Bayer Leverkusen, but the Croatian recently sustained a relatively serious injury, which means that Sacha Boey and Adam Aznou are the only remaining right backs in the squad. With an injury to either of the two, Kompany could be forced to look Kimmich’s way to fill in, especially now that Noussair Mazraoui has left the club for Manchester United.
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