analysis
In the friendly win against the USA, the DFB team’s statics were temporarily confused. One of the reasons for this was captain Joshua Kimmich.
Joshua Kimmich’s working day was over after 60 minutes. In addition to jet lag, the hot, humid weather in Chicago with the occasional downpour also left its mark on the captain of the German national team. The 31-year-old looked tired when he was substituted.
In fact, Kimmich played an important role in the 2-1 win against the USA, just as national coach Julian Nagelsmann expected of him. Kimmich had directly prepared Germany’s early lead with his centimeter-precise cross to Kai Havertz. And he tried again and again to encourage the German game.
Unusual role
Not an easy task given these external circumstances – and from this position. Because Kimmich seems to have been placed in the right-back position by the national coach – also due to a lack of alternatives. And the player still seems to be confused about it.
As he is used to at his home club FC Bayern, Kimmich was drawn to the headquarters from time to time. He tried to structure and determine the DFB team’s game. However, this had an impact on the entire statics of the Nagelsmann team.
Because: The two central defensive players around Felix Nmecha and Aleksandar Pavlovic didn’t seem to really know which of the three should take on the boss role.
Losing the ball due to unnecessary dribbling
And since Jamal Musiala, as the central offensive player, was still far from his best form and had very few accents, there was a vacuum in the headquarters, especially in the first half – after 15 minutes, which the US players took advantage of.
What is particularly problematic is that Kimmich sometimes takes greater risks in the last line of defense in order to get into his favorite position. In the first half he lost the ball with a completely unnecessary dribble. He initiated a counterattack by the opponents, which his defender colleague Jonathan Tah was just able to iron out.
More positional accuracy required
By the end of the first half, the DFB team’s coordination problems were as great as the danger of conceding more than one goal. The German headquarters hardly managed to take control of the game during this period. “Some things don’t work perfectly yet, we’ll work on that in the coming week”said Kimmich.
In the second half, Kimmich and his colleagues in the midfield were more orderly and faithful to their positions, so that the USA had far fewer opportunities to develop and therefore score goals.
It may take a while before Kimmich fully accepts his national team position and interprets it in his own way to best suit his team.
But he shouldn’t take too much time with it – in the interests of the entire team structure.