Last night Bayern Munch midfielder Konrad Laimer captained Austria during a 1-1 friendly draw with Moldova. The former RB Leipzig midfielder is setting his sights on winning a starting spot in Thomas Tuchel’s midfield at Bayern.
Laimer joined Bayern in the summer on a free transfer, believed to be a huge coup considering his market value sits around €30 million according to Transfermarkt. The Bavarian club tried to sign him last summer, but Leipzig rejected all of their last three bids.
Despite the obvious talent he possesses, the 26-year-old has had to be patient so far this season having failed to start any of the three Bundesliga games, in fact he’s only been on the pitch for a combined 74 minutes, with some of those being played as a makeshift right-back.
Konrad Laimer is confident of securing a starting XI place
When you join a club like Bayern Munich, you expect competition. Laimer knew what he was getting when he signed on the dotted line.
So far this season Tuchel has elected to start Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka in central midfield, and considering Bayern has a perfect 100% record so far, that decision has been justified.
However, Laimer believes that eventually, he will win that starting midfield job, likely next to Joshua Kimmich. Although the early form of Goretzka won’t make it easy, with the 28-year-old German being in fine form to start the year. While talking to the media during the international break (via Bild), Laimer insisted that he has always thrived under healthy competition.
"“Everyone knows that I feel most comfortable in midfield. There is always competition. In the end, it’s important to prevail. And I always came out on top in the end.”"
There isn’t quite as much competition in that central midfield area as there might have been had Joao Palhinha’s deal not fallen through at the last minute. Combine that with Dutch international Ryan Gravenbach making the move to Liverpool and Laimer has every opportunity to break stake a claim to the starting spot.
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There are youngsters coming through with Aleksandar Pavlovic impressing early, and reports last week indicated that Bayern may reignite their interest in Palhinha when the transfer window opens in January.
Laimer’s best shot at securing a starting spot may be to usurp Noussair Mazraoui at right-back. The young Moroccan has played well to start the year, but with Benjamin Pavard leaving to join Inter Milan and Josip Stanisic spending this year on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, Tuchel is a little short in that area of the pitch. It could be that in bigger games, Tuchel elects to start with the experience of Laimer.