Maybe Joshua Kimmich didn’t even realize at first that the tackle wasn’t needed. It was the 85th minute in Frankfurt, Munich defender Lucas Hernández had just heroically separated Eintracht striker Rafael Borré from the ball and Kimmich had rushed over: His mouth wide open, his eyes narrowed, he roared his satisfaction – the typical, world-famous one Kimmich gesture. It was almost disturbing that Borré had been offside. After all, it was a scene with symbolic power.
“If you notice how we pushed ourselves back there in the last ten or fifteen minutes” when preventing goals, “then that’s fun too,” said Kimmich shortly afterwards after being invited to an interview on Sky broadcaster as the player of the evening had been. “The mentality was really good today,” he said. This 1-0 in Frankfurt, the first clean sheet in more than a month, he called it a “battle victory”.
It was a game that was primarily marked by protests against the war: “Stop it, Putin” shone on the scoreboard before kick-off, and Robert Lewandowski wore a captain’s armband in the Ukrainian national colors. It was also a game that could have marked a slight trend reversal this season for the German record champions. This was particularly evident in Kimmich.
FC Bayern wins 65 percent of duels, Joshua Kimmich wins the ball 19 times
The national player, 27, had clearly addressed some of the shortcomings in Bayern’s game in the past few weeks. The team doesn’t have a “world-class mentality” at the moment, he said after the 4-2 defeat in Bochum. “We’re not in a flow at the moment,” he said after the subsequent 1-1 draw in Salzburg in the Champions League. And at the latest when Bayern then only won 4-1 against bottom-of-the-table Fürth after coach Julian Nagelsmann switched from a back four to a back three in the break when the score was 0: 1, it wasn’t just about mentality and flow, but also discussed about the right tactics.
“Stop it, Putin!” is written in large letters on the Frankfurt scoreboard.
(Photo: Arne Dedert/dpa)
It was easy to forget that FC Bayern were already leading the Bundesliga in a commanding manner and with the best defense a week ago. But it rumbled a bit with the demanding record champions. And it rumbled in Frankfurt at first: Eintracht could have led after seven minutes, goalkeeper Sven Ulreich saved against Filip Kostic. The defence, this time set up as a chain of three central defenders with possession of the ball from the start, could not stop him. But it remained the most dangerous scene in Frankfurt. Nagelsmann said: “All three at the back played well overall.”
Whether the three-man chain is the best tactical basic order for FC Bayern, and if so, in which line-up in the future, that is of course not yet finally clarified after this 1-0 in Frankfurt. Benjamin Pavard, for example, who is usually right-back in a back four and would probably always prefer to be a centre-back, once again took up the position on the right wing.
But it was hardly noticeable that this is not the perfect solution. Pavard was also an example of Kimmich’s fighting game thesis: the Frenchman won six aerial duels, most of them on the pitch. His team was the “more aggressive” and “also deservedly won because of that,” said Nagelsmann. The Munich team won 65 percent of all duels. Nagelsmann even praised the filigree Jamal Musiala, who on his 19th birthday replaced the corona-positive Thomas Müller in attacking midfield, for his admirable ball skills, but above all for his diligence.
“Very clever, very sure of the ball, very dominant,” is how coach Nagelsmann describes Kimmich’s performance
The fact that such games, which are about willpower and duels, are opportunities for Kimmich to prove his class, that probably wouldn’t even have been worth mentioning six months ago: of course. But Kimmich also had something to prove, he had not often stood out again after he had returned in autumn after a long corona quarantine and a break of almost two months.
This time there was hardly a statistic that did not show his outstanding performance: 19 ball wins, 13 kilometers covered, 120 ball contacts. In addition, more than 90 percent pass accuracy, even seven out of nine long balls came, and of course the most important pass of the day before the 1-0: Between Frankfurt’s defenders he played the ball into the path of the goal scorer Leroy Sané, who had just come on as a substitute. “The pass window is very small, he plays it perfectly timed,” said Nagelsmann. “Very clever, sure of the ball and dominant in the build-up,” is how the coach described Kimmich’s performance.
Next to him in the sixth position, Marcel Sabitzer, who replaced the injured Leon Goretzka and Corentin Tolisso, once again played a rather modest game. But that was the difference to the previous weeks: system debates, form weaknesses, own shortcomings, those were the topics for another day.
