National coach Hansi Flick absolutely has to be successful with the German national soccer team in order to consolidate his shaky position before the European Championships at home next year. The focus of this mission is Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich, who could possibly play at right-back, a position he doesn’t quite like. If this attempt fails, things could get tight for Flick, believes former international Markus Babbel.
Hansi Flick is rare with the DFB team these days. In his landmark week of probation as national coach, the 58-year-old only gives very few insights into his plans for the tricky international match this Saturday (8:45 p.m. / RTL and in the sport.de live ticker) in Wolfsburg against Japan.
No one was allowed to watch the standard training session two days before the game, and no one was allowed to observe the 5-0 win in the internal test against the DFB U20 squad on the VfL Wolfsburg grounds the day before. And yet Flick’s explosive business game with his previous midfield boss and captain Joshua Kimmich made it to the outside via “Bild”.
There are some indications that the 28-year-old Kimmich, who sees and understands himself as the main character in the center of the German game, has to go back to the right – i.e. to the edge of the field. There, where his DFB career once began as the successor to Philipp Lahm. Where he had to help out at the last EM 2021 – albeit extremely reluctantly.
If the experiment with Kimmich works, it could save Flick, but only under certain circumstances. “It depends on the performance. If it’s bad, it will be tight for Hansi,” said ex-DFB kicker Markus Babbel to “Sky”.
Babbel: FC Bayern has become a CL winner with Kimmich on the right
Babbel is convinced that Kimmich can play right-back. “FC Bayern won the 2020 Champions League with Kimmich as a right-back. He played a key role in this triumph with his cross on Kingsley Coman,” recalled the 50-year-old of the success under FCB coach Flick at the time.
In the end, both the salvation of the DFB team and that of Flick depend on Kimmich’s handling of the new situation, believes Babbel. “It stands and falls with Joshua. If he accepts it and doesn’t see it as a degradation, then that can really be a very, very good solution,” he explained, adding: “Joshua brings everything with him. He has the defensive quality that to close the side. But also the creative quality and the power and horsepower to work forward and start dangerous actions.”
However, if Kimmich “doesn’t accept the new position and don’t see himself as being that valuable, I would prefer Benjamin Henrichs,” emphasized Babbel.
Flick tends to appoint BVB captain Emre Can as his “holding six” and triple winner Ilkay Gündogan as the thinker and driver of the midfield game. For a few years, midfield was not only the common territory of Kimmich and Goretzka at FC Bayern, but also in the DFB team.