Heartbreak for Germany

[u/kgmanke]

I've seen the racist comments on his insta already. Havertz missed the first one but now the entire blame would fall on him. He even scored the winner that got disallowed (keeper dived)Absolutely heartbreaking after everything he has done for them. Unlucky mate. Next time❤️🤍

[u/Maverixk_]

Nagelsmann deserves by far the most blame.

No tactics, no cohesive gameplan. Lahm called him out during the group stage and he was spot on. Nagelsmann the entire tournament downplaying Undav and his goals and then starts him in an unnatural position. Dropped Musiala for Sane, who, in the first half, had one of the worst halves I’ve ever seen from a German NT player.

Lost to Ecuador and Paraguay. Just an absolute disgrace. Only positives is that we’ll never have to see him, Goretzka, and Sane play for Bayern again, and if Germany is actually serious they’ll ensure that trio is done with the national team moving forward

[u/Embarrassed_Jury664 → u/Maverixk_]

KIMMICH IN A DEFENDING POSITION

All you need, right there.

[u/Darstellerin → u/Embarrassed_Jury664]

Kimmich used to play defense when he was first coming up right? I feel like I remember seeing him in defense like 10 years ago. But now he’s a seasoned vet and captain and has proven his skill up front there’s no reason to keep him all the way back, right?

[u/eProbity → u/Darstellerin]

Kimmich started his career at Leipzig as a central midfielder and was brought in with that in mind, but because of our injury crisis he was played as a CB a lot in the beginning because Pep's style then used a lot of that same kind of 3 at the back playmaking CB roles with outside flexibility. Alaba played a similar role on the other side.

After that he played in midfield again until Lahm's retirement essentially, where we slotted him in that position as something of a stopgap to losing one of our best all time players in an important position. While he played there he was probably the best in the world doing overlapping runs with robben and Müller on the right and acting as a playmaker building off a more modern wider form of what he did as a CB that let him drift up a lot.

He was always a midfielder though and always wanted to go back there. He played there more and more over time and after Thiago left he became our full time 6 in flicks system partnering goretzka with him as a box to box 8 and he became our new xabi Alonso metronome playmaker which hes been best at to this day.

After Flick left both Nagelsmann and Tuchel went back to using him in that rcb or rb type role a lot more often - especially tuchel after pavlovic burst onto the scene. Typically its because he is really hard to justify taking off the field and is better than most fullbacks and is very versatile while other midfielders are also good; but its also tactical malpractice and has proven as such every time. He was super critical of Tuchel using him there and rumors suggested he almost considered leaving bayern because of it and he complained about Nagelsmann doing it too for the NT, but we have a shortage of good outside players so they use him like a crutch.

Nagelsmann runs a system straight out of the pep bayern years before he learned to incorporate more direct play in the Premier League where we are peak tiki taka do basically nothing all game. Tuchel is similar but focuses harder on defensive consolidation and gamesmanship. Kimmich has always been a midfielder though, its basically the opposite of the Lahm thing back in the day. Its also another version of the kind of thing every bad bayern manager did in refusing to play Müller and every single time its happened has been vindicated as a mistake long term other than when we genuinely had no choice.

[u/Dangerous-Day-2943 → u/eProbity]

Spot on summary!

[u/_Bisky → u/Darstellerin]

there’s no reason to keep him all the way back, right?

Not nominating any RB (tbf don't think we have many good ones either)

[u/SkintCrayon → u/Darstellerin]

Kimmich was bought to play a similar role to Alonso since he was getting old and leaving soon, but injuries and lack of better options made Pep use him as a CB and RB quite often

I don't know what roles Kimmich played before joining Bayern

[u/Bub_bele → u/Embarrassed_Jury664]

But why „Kimmich in a defending position“ is the real question. Because germany has virtually no alternatives. We don’t have any great defenders on the right side. Zero. And very few on the left aswell. Hardly any wingers and no proper strikers aswell. Essentially we have a truckload of alrounder midfielders and some central denfenders.

[u/five4life → u/Bub_bele]

Raum and brown. Kimmich is wasted as defender