The stats that prove Joshua Kimmich is world class

This article is part of 90min’s Welcome to World Class series.

Bayern Munich’s stranglehold on German football showed absolutely no signs of letting up during 2021.

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Last season, despite suffering from several high-profile injuries, Die Roten were close to flawless in the second half of the campaign and if it were not for these absences they likely would have progressed beyond the quarter-final stage of the Champions League.

During their dominance the man stealing all of the headlines was Robert Lewandowski. Fair enough we suppose. He did score approximately 3,000 goals over the course of the year.

However, if we discount the mercurial Lewandowski, there is only one candidate for being Bayern’s standout performer in 2021: Joshua Kimmich.

He has been in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons recently, but if we ignore his off-field hypocrisy for the moment and focus solely on his performances on the pitch, it is clear to see that Kimmich had an incredible year.

What makes him such a marvel is the incredible offensive numbers he manages to post despite nominally playing in ‘defensive midfield’ for his club.

Between 1 January and 30 November, Kimmich managed six goals for club and country – he does not take penalties remember – from 63 shots, as well as nine assists.

However, the properly bonkers stat that proves what a freak the German is how many chances he created during this same period. 125 to be precise. That was more than any other player we shortlisted for 2021’s Welcome to World Class series bar one: Bruno Fernandes.

Granted, Kimmich does take the majority of Bayern’s set plays and occasionally plays as a right-back, but still, that is a crazy amount of creativity to possess in defensive midfield.

Combine this with his excellent defensive and passing stats – 63 tackles, 88.3% passing accuracy and 3441 passes – and it is easy to see why he once again is in the conversation for being the best defensive midfielder in the world.

Source of the article

Author: XenBet