#joshua-kimmich

#joshua-kimmich

He's a quality player and an absolute leader. For example he texts me after every game where I score a goal at Newcastle, that's just a small example. I think he's a very good captain and a great person," Woltemade said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). The little things matter and Kimmich has fully embraced his role as a leader for both Bayern Munich and Germany.

In my career, I've rarely seen a player as physically strong as Leroy. He can run and sprint a lot and can do it every three days. When he's mentally ready, we've seen what he can do. He had an impressive performance [against Slovakia], he rewarded himself with two goals but also worked hard and was diligent in the counter pressing. When he does that, when Flo Wirtz does that, when our attacking players press and defend, then the entire team pulls together and we can be successful,

Joshua Kimmich will miss the German national team's final training session in Wolfsburg on Thursday. The captain suffered a capsule injury in his right ankle during training on Wednesday and will be unavailable for Friday's international friendly in Luxembourg (8:45 p.m. CET, live on RTL ). Kimmich will travel to Luxembourg with the team this afternoon as planned. On Monday (8:45 p.m. CET, live on ZDF ), Germany will play their final World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in Leipzig.

"As things stand, he [Kimmich] will return to the number six position because he is simply one of two or three players who will always play for their club," Nagelsmann said.

"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.

Under Vincent Kompany's expansive possession-based style of football Kimmich will play to his strengths as a deep-lying orchestrator or an advanced playmaker higher up the pitch depending on the flow of the game. The fact that the Bavarian side loaned out it's only true midfield defensive specialist- João Palhinha to Tottenham, with an option to buy, is a clear reminder that Kompany's system is based on the high-line defense with pressing and counter-pressing to maximise possession and chance creation.

Especially in the national team, you depend on a framework and a team being built in the year and a half leading up to a tournament. And I'm currently observing that this is happening with us.