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In the middle of the second half he became strong on the field. Leon Goretzka had spit the ball out of bounds during a midfield duel and thus prevented an attack from Mainz when suddenly Joshua Kimmich stood very close to him and yelled in his face: “Yes! Boy! Yes! “It’s good that Goretzka knows his old friend and teammate very well. Otherwise, he might have been scared.
One of the many scenes in which you can see (and hear) who had returned to assume the role of driver, the whip in the FC Bayern game this Sunday night: Joshua Kimmich, who for the first time after his severe meniscus suffered eight weeks ago. Injury was back in the starting lineup. However, and that was the great realization of this mind-blowing game, no longer in its usual place in the defensive midfield as in the first half. But as a right back. A position that Joshua Kimmich thought he had long ago, but continues to achieve. And the one that he probably won’t get rid of for the rest of his career. Because it’s too good there.
The fact that Hansi Flick ordered perhaps the best six in the world for the second half to the right back was due to the completely botched first half. In the eighth consecutive Bundesliga game, Bayern conceded the first goal of a game (this time even the first two): in the long list of records that the last triple winner had set, this is certainly the mark to look for. I would like to do without. Later, players complained again about the lack of attitudes, that you weren’t awake, that you had to quickly turn it off.
But that’s what they said after the last eight games. Why they do not implement it, why players seem to be with their heads everywhere from the beginning of the first half, but not on the field, is a mystery.
Lateral weak point
The reason it didn’t work out against Mainz in the beginning was, as Flick later complained, due to the many lost duels, if the players even got into a duel without having played beforehand. Flick saw the big weak point on the wings, with Alphonso Davies on the left, but especially on the right with Benjamin Pavard, who made too many mistakes and gave too little momentum – making Flick’s mood exponentially over the course of the first half pressed. Angry and cursing, he watched the first 45 minutes, never before in the 14 months of his tenure as head coach had he looked so bleak in the Munich arena as on the third day of 2021.
A nuisance that was relieved in the cabin. “I can make noise too, I’ve also learned a lot over the years,” Flick later admitted, as if he wanted to finally get rid of the old cliche of the coach who was always so calm and controlled. But Flick also made it clear that the well-deserved lesson was immediately followed by the goal-oriented search for the solution of the problem. “It is important not only to shout in the forest, but also to focus on the necessary adjustments.” Which then worked out quite well, with the replacement of the very weak Pavard and the shift of Kimmich to the right back.
And suddenly the Bayern game began, a very typical scenario that unleashed the furious second half less than five minutes after the restart. A determined attack on Kimmich’s right side completed after brief stops at Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski? Of course: Kimmich. From then on it only went in one direction, that of the Mainzer Tor. And very often on the right side. That he would imagine a side in exactly the same way and not the other way, Flick said later, an indication that he might use Kimmich there more often in the future.
Really marked position
Kimmich seemed to have already marked this position. After Philipp Lahm’s career ended in 2017, he was Bayern’s regular right-back for two years, before moving to defensive midfield in 2019. Time and again he emphasized the advantages he had there: more central in action, more close to all players, better opportunities to read a game, configure, design. Kimmich was finally where she had always wanted to be.
How much he identified with sixth place was also shown symbolically at the start of the season. A few hours before the opening match, it was clear that Thiago would switch to Liverpool FC, so Kimmich, who until then always wore 32, secured the Thiagos number on short notice. The Bavarians quickly launched the flocking machine on the move, in the 8-0 win against Schalke on the night, Kimmich came up with number six.
That Kimmich is always an optimal choice for the right-back was already evident in the summer in the Champions League final in Lisbon, when he helped the injured Pavard and set up Kingsley Coman’s decisive goal in the final against Paris St. Germain. . As back then, he showed against Mainz on Sunday how much a game can be determined and shaped as a winger. If you can do it like him.
If the defensive headquarters has a strong staff with Leon Goretzka and Corentin Tolisso, Kimmich should remain an alternative in this position. And maybe even more than that: Pavard has been struggling with his form all season, currently injured substitute Bouna Sarr hasn’t been able to convince so far. Flick’s best right-back are currently his six.
