This is how a captain has to appear. Joshua Kimmich is involved in all five German goals against Italy. For this he gets praise from all sides.
Five scorer points in the Nations League quarter-finals against Italy and almost an omnipresence on the field-captain Joshua Kimmich was one of the outstanding DFB players during the international break and is one of the hope for a World Cup title in America in the summer of 2026.
After Kimmich was not always able to call up his best performance in previous years and at the same time the constant rumors about a possible departure from FC Bayern are finally off the table, the 30-year-old now trumps up again and thus lifts his teams to another level.
Maybe his new performance explosion has something to do with the fact that Kimmich recently extended his contract with the German record champions by 2029 and his sporting future has finally been clarified. But at the same time, Kimmich seems to benefit from the tactical system in the DFB jersey and really bloom in it. National coach Julian Nagelsmann chose an extraordinary offensive, especially in the second leg against Italy on Sunday evening, although for him anything but atypical.
Antonio Rüdiger regularly stormed forward over Kimmich’s side, while Kimmich also moved into the halfway as a nominal right -back. In general, he has shown that he can play both right and in the midfield center. In any case, it is less about the position on paper than the design of his role in the field. If he is primarily asked as an offensive driver and ball distributor, he can shine. A defensive specialist, to which he should be done for a while, is not in itself.
This is also shown by his statistics from the past twelve months in the Bavaria jersey. The defensive values are okay, but the offensive numbers are sometimes outstanding. In 90 minutes, he plays on average a little more than ten long forward passes from the middle circle and, according to data portal Fbref.com, is one of the top percentile among the midfielder of the European top 5 leagues and international club competitions.
With almost five shooting participations per 90 minutes, it is also one of the top two percent of the midfield designers in Europe. Precise flanks from the right -back position or long balls towards or behind the opposing line of defense are Kimmich’s specialty.
In addition to sporting games in his case, leadership qualities are also a role. Of course, Kimmich’s immense ambition can sometimes go into fabricity and appear almost complaining in times of failure. But on the other hand, when he is in person and calls good performance, he goes with great determination – and sometimes shoots an important penalty like Italy on Sunday. He doesn’t need to do this at Bayern because the German record champion has one of the penalty experts par excellence, namely Harry Kane. It is all the more impressive that Kimmich could confidently insert the penalty without much practice.
In this era according to Toni Kroos, İlkay Gündoğan, Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer, the DFB team needs one or two seasoned and undisputed managers. Rüdiger is certainly predestined to be the “aggressive leader”. Apparently Kimmich takes care of the rest. The highly agreed Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz are not (yet) suitable for these roles with all football quality. Kimmich, on the other hand. Especially when he calls up top services and therefore also seems inviolable.
How do you rate Joshua Kimmich’s game performance? Write an e-mail to [email protected]. Please use the subject “Kimmich” and justify.