Joshua Kimmich is the central figure in the German national team. He’s leading a generation under pressure.
It was close, very close. Only in the 84th minute did Leon Goretzka equalize against Hungary. As a result, Germany dragged itself into the round of 16 of the EURO 2020, which was a year late, but then dropped out. Joachim Löw’s time as national coach ended in Wembley against England, and since the German team kept up quite well and Thomas Müller missed a great chance to equalize before the 0:2, the shortest of all possible analyzes was: can happen.
Joshua Kimmich in a different role at the EM 2020
An end after the preliminary round, due to a defeat against Hungary in Munich, would have required more in-depth and longer analyses, in which Joshua Kimmich would have been a central topic. Due to a lack of high-quality alternatives, Löw had pulled him out of the center to the right side of midfield in front of a back three.
Given away, was the verdict of some experts, even if Kimmich’s performances in the games against Hungary and in the 4-2 win against Portugal with two templates spoke against it. On Saturday (June 11, 2022, listen live from 8.45 p.m. and in the Sportschau ticker) there will be another duel with Hungary, this time in Budapest and in the Nations League.
Kimmich in constant use – with the national team and in the Bundesliga
Who defends on the right in the back four, who next to Antonio Rüdiger in the centre? Who storms in the 4-2-3-1 formation that national coach Hansi Flick has already decided on for the game against Italy in Mönchengladbach on Tuesday. There are some unanswered questions, just like Kimmich’s partner in central defensive midfield. The “six” is Kimmich’s regular place, and that also applies in times when terms like regular place are outdated.
Joshua Kimmich has been on the pitch in all 66 of his international appearances and has only been substituted four times. So many minutes of action come together, especially since the following also applies to FC Bayern: Kimmich plays – through. In the past Bundesliga season, this applied to 25 out of 28 appearances. The missed games are due to a corona infection and its persistent consequences. Since Kimmich had previously admitted to noisy public accompaniment that he did not want to be vaccinated, malice was added to the discussion.
In the meantime, according to Kimmich, he has been vaccinated. It’s again about his performance, with which he deals more critically than many of his colleagues. “In principle, I always set very high standards for myself. I know that it certainly wasn’t my best season, especially the second half of the season“, he said of the first half of 2022, in which he missed the first two caps due to the birth of the third child.
The central figure of the DFB team
Now he’s back. In his 90 minutes in the 1-1 draw in Italy he scored a goal, in the 90 minutes against England he provided the assist with a great pass to Jonas Hofmann’s goal. The fact that he was only on the ball 80 times, but more than 100 times in each of the previous four international matches (159 times against Romania), was due to coach Gareth Southgate, who had given his midfielders the task of man-marking Kimmich. With the outdated method, the German chief strategist should be taken out of the game. It succeeded tolerably.
Joshua Kimmich was the central figure in the DFB team, who thought he was on the right track after the game with a view to the World Cup. The title has been announced as a goal for the tournament in Qatar, despite all the disappointments of the past few years. Since the embarrassing preliminary round at the 2018 World Cup, only two of twelve games in the Nations League have been won, at EURO 2020 they only won one in three home games before they were eliminated in the round of 16.
“The pressure to win something increases with every tournament”
“Since ‘we’ have been at work, we just haven’t made it“, said Kimmich, meaning the generation that was born in the mid-90s. They should achieve what the ten-year-old did, who became European champions in the U21s in 2009 and world champions in Brazil five years later, that generation with Manuel Neuer, Benedikt Höwedes, Jerômé Boateng, Mats Hummels, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil.”The pressure to win something increases with every tournament“, says Kimmich. He has a lot of responsibility, but that’s exactly how he wants it to be.