There is little doubt that Joshua Kimmich is playing some of the best football of his career so far this season under Vincent Kompany. Having moved back to midfield, after playing the second half of last season at right-back, Kimmich has not looked back, and has been one of the best midfielders in the world so far this season.
However, Bayern need to be careful when it comes to managing his minutes. In fact, Kimmich has not missed a single minute so far this season. He has played 900/900 minutes in the Bundesliga, 360/360 minutes in the Champions League, and 180/180 minutes in the DFB-Pokal.
Totalling 1440/1400 possible minutes. Whilst the faith shown in him by Kompany is commendable – he probably hasn’t needed to play quite so many minutes.
Stellar Joshua Kimmich setting the tone for Bayern Munich... but does he need a break?
Not only that, but as the new captain of Germany, his role in the team has got even more important than it was before. Julian Nagelsmann has played him for all 360 minutes of their Nations League games so far. So, in total – Kimmich has played 1800 minutes so far this season, in mid-November.
There is no doubt he will play 180 minutes or thereabouts over this break too. With the extended Champions League format taken into consideration too, there is going to be an extreme workload for Kimmich this season. Bayern need to be very careful of this.
The injury to Aleksandar Pavlović has not been ideal in this regard. Playing a double pivot of Pavlovic and João Palhinha towards the end of games that are already won, with Kimmich getting some rest – feels like something that could have been pretty feasible.
The clear cover player to come in has been Leon Goretzka, but he has often been used to give rest to Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano – two players who also need their minutes managed. With Pavlović on the sidelines, Bayern are lacking depth to cover in the midfield positions.
Eric Dier played as a defensive midfielder several times for Sporting, Tottenham Hotspur and the England national team, but as touched on above, is more needed to give Kim and Upamecano a breather when necessary.
The best solution to give Kimmich a rest, until Pavlović is back from injury – is to give minutes to Raphael Guerreiro in midfield, with Konrad Laimer at right-back. This could also be vice versa, though in that order feels like the best fit for the team.
Bayern are doing very well at the moment – but an injury to Kimmich could derail their whole season, and everything that has been built up until now. It is important to do everything they can to prevent it.