Hold on, people. We’re diving into a seriously speculative report here.
At this point, the Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka pivot is infamous at Bayern Munich. The duo have played together at the club for 7 years now and, despite ups and downs, have always found a way to beat out the competition at the club to become the regular duo in midfield. Even this season, with Goretzka relegated to the very fringes of the squad, did Bayern eventually end up fielding the so-called “Kimmretzka” duo in the business end of the season.
The duo are also very good friends and Kimmich has complimented Goretzka’s skills on many occasions over the years. But what if, all of a sudden, Kimmich would actually prefer to see Goretzka replaced as his midfield partner? According to the speculation report from Stefan Kumberger of Sport1, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, Bayern’s #6 would prefer a ball playing midfielder to play next to him:
It’s no secret that Joshua Kimmich prefers to play in midfield. He feels he’s not involved enough when he plays at right-back and wants more responsibility and influence over the game. Kimmich has hinted several times internally that he believes he performs best when paired with a ball playing midfield partner, and not a box-to-box player like Goretzka.
Kimmich still raves about his former teammate Thiago. Although he didn’t form a double pivot with him so often, Kimmich believes that having a midfield partner of Thiago’s caliber would be ideal – a profile that only Aleksandar Pavlović provides in the current squad. João Palhinha is a completely different type of player. New signing Tom Bischof is not a Thiago profile either. It’s questionable whether the people in charge can or want to comply with Kimmich’s wish in their squad planning, which is likely to remain a wish.
BFW Analysis
Such reports are always…frustrating to analyze. Even in the report, it is clear that the reporter took several puzzle pieces, from small comments made from Kimmich in the past, to build the narrative that Kimmich wants a ball playing midfielder as a partner. Did the reporter put the pieces together correctly or… well, not? Without knowing the hints the report did not share, that is impossible for us outsiders to figure out concretely. All we can do is speculate. Or we can look at all the times Kimmich has clearly communicated that he likes playing with Goretzka.
Regardless of whether or not Kimmich has this opinion or not, it does seem as if it is slowly coming true. Though the report prefers to focus on the nebulous concept of a “Thiago profile” (What does that mean? Does a player with a Thiago profile need to be good on the ball? Tackle well? Be injury prone? Be specific, please) Bayern are starting to fill the squad with midfielders who are genuinely very good with the ball at their feet. Pavlović is one such ball playing midfielder and Bischof is as well. For a long time, Kimmich has had to bear the brunt of the work while building up play. But it seems that, finally, Germany’s captain will have a partner to take some off the load of his shoulders.
