Criticism of Kimmich: “He ran around like a spinning top” | OneFootball

Joshua Kimmich was absent from the 2-0 win over Serbia—yet his role on the German national team remains unchallenged. Marcel Reif explains why.

The German national team put on a convincing performance in the 2-0 win over Serbia —even without Joshua Kimmich. In midfield, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Tom Bischof, and Florian Wirtz brought a lot of control and enthusiasm to the game. However, TV legend Marcel Reif does not want to draw any conclusions about the status of the DFB captain from this at all.

On the show “Reif ist Live,” it was discussed that Kimmich would have liked to stay with the DFB team after the loss to Greece. National team coach Jürgen Klopp, however, had split up his XXL squad as planned and sent the Bayern star home after the first block of training.

When asked whether Kimmich sometimes needs to learn to let go, Reif responded clearly.

Reif explains Kimmich’s “helper syndrome”

“Yes. That’s just the kind of guy he is. And that’s what he brings to the table. There are two sides to it. And sometimes he does that on the field, too. There were times when he ran around like a spinning top—everywhere, because he wanted to solve everything. Which wasn’t really helpful, either at Bayern or on the national team.”

For Reif, it’s precisely this urge to take on responsibility that’s part of Kimmich’s personality: “He’s someone who has this ‘helper syndrome.’ On the field and off it, too. He’s the captain now, and everyone knows why.”

(function(){ var iframe=document.getElementById(‚polls-fcbinside‘); if(!iframe)return; window.addEventListener(‚message‘,function(e){ if(e.source!==iframe.contentWindow)return; var d=e.data||{}; if(d.type===’FOOTY_WIDGET_HEIGHT’&&typeof d.height===’number‘){iframe.style.height=d.height+’px‘;} }); })();

The fact that Germany put in a strong performance against Serbia even without Kimmich doesn’t change this assessment in Reif’s view. Klopp, too, made it clear after the match that he wants to deliberately develop his team independently of individual players.

“We can play a certain style of soccer in a wide variety of lineups—that’s the plan. The soccer has to remain consistent—the lineup doesn’t have to (…). If someone is out and we just stand there looking dumb and say, ‘We can only play this way if so-and-so is on the field,’ then that doesn’t make any sense,” said Reif.

For Kimmich, this means that competition and new lineups are part of the process under Klopp. However, his role as captain and a key leader is not fundamentally in question.