During an appearance on his Basler ballert podcast, former Germany international Mario Basler issued some criticism of Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich. Specifically, Basler thinks that Kimmich’s playing style can be hard for his midfield partners to sync with.
“We’re opening up unnecessary holes again, even with Kimmich at midfield, who’s running around everywhere again, taking every corner, wanting to take every free kick. He’s running over to the right, running over to the left. I can’t understand
why they’re completely rebuilding everything again,” Basler said (as captured by Goal).
Specifically, Basler thinks Leon Goretzka often suffers for some of Kimmich’s mistakes.
“At Bayern, when he plays alongside Kimmich, he’s always substituted, not Kimmich, but him. Kimmich can play however he wants, even on the national team. If things go badly, Goretzka is always the one who gets substituted. He then doesn’t get to play the next game,” said Basler. “Goretzka and (Angelo) Stiller would be a combination. Stiller has already shown that he can play this position excellently. You have to give these guys self-confidence. You have to say, you’re my two midfielders, you’re my starting six.”
While he did not specifically say it, it seems as if Basler thinks Germany would be better off with Kimmich playing right-back.
“If you keep having Kimmich breathing down your neck and the national coach then puts Kimmich back on the six, then one of the two has to be out again,” Basler stated.
There is some thought that because of his popularity and persistence, that Kimmich inherently (and maybe inadvertently) puts pressure on coaches to play him at his desired position in the central midfield. Basler certainly thinks so.
Bayern Munich is back in action this week and a tough slate of games lies ahead. Before we tackle all of that, though, there is much to unpack from Germany’s international break and the explosive performance from Uli Hoeneß on SPORT1-Doppelpass over the weekend.
Let’s get into all of that more on this edition of the Bavarian Podcast Works Show! This is what we have on tap:
- Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and ugly from Germany’s international break performances vs. Slovakia and Northern Ireland.
- Julian Nagelsmann is in a make-or-break period with Germany.
- Does the DFB need to think about bringing in Jürgen Klopp to overhaul the entire organization.
- Uli Hoeneß says Bayern Munich was the real winner of the transfer window and that Nicolas Jackson needs to get 40 starts for the obligation to buy clause to activate.
- Chuck quickly addresses Philadelphia’s return to the spotlight (for all of the wrong reasons).
- It’s time to turn focus back to Bayern Munich.
