Ever since he joined from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2023, Konrad Laimer has been quite the versatile, auxiliary player for Bayern Munich. The Austrian international has the ability to play as a defender, a central midfielder, and even as a winger and he’s been used in all sorts of positions during his time with the German Rekordmeister thus far.
A look at his entire career for club and country as a whole, statistics would show that Laimer is a central defensive midfielder by trade, but he’s really
morphed into a Swiss-army-knife at both Bayern and the Austrian national team, especially with how well he’s been able to play as a right back under Vincent Kompany. His consistency and ability to deputize as right back has been especially important this season given the injury that Croatian Josip Stanišić was recovering from for most of the beginning of this season.
While away with the Austrian national team for the international break, Laimer spoke about his different positions played and said that he’s been enjoying his time as a fullback with the amount of the ball he’s able to see and help he’s able to provide on both sides of the ball. “I’ve always enjoyed every position I played at. I’m having fun playing as a full-back at the moment. I have a lot of the ball, I can help the team going forward and at the back. As long as I’m on the pitch, I’m not bothered by the position,” he explained (via @iMiaSanMia).
His versatility and commitment are a massive part of what makes a lot of Bayern fans call for the club to extend Laimer’s contract beyond June 2027, which the club has not closed the door to. Raphaël Guerreiro very much has a similar type of profile to Laimer with the amount of different positions he can play, but the club has officially announced that he’ll be leaving after this season concludes, making it all the more important to try to keep a player like Laimer around. His versatility will be needed as Bayern making the final push across all three fronts in this season’s crunch time. Just before the international break, he even started at left back in the 4-0 vs. Union Berlin, even when both Guerreiro and Tom Bischof were fit — a testament to just how much trust Kompany has in him.
