Accused of hoarding set piece duties for himself, Germany star Joshua Kimmich gives his response

Accused of hoarding set piece duties for himself, Germany star Joshua Kimmich gives his response

Over the past few years, German media has found plenty of reasons to get mad at Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich. Whether it was his initial refusal to get vaccinated, his supposed “insistence” on playing in midfield instead of in defense despite his every word to the contrary, his recent poor season for Bayern and his reputation as the face of the Germany national team that has faced humiliation after humiliation over the past 6 years, Kimmich simply has not gotten a break from the media. Now the media has found a new reason to scapegoat him: His insistence on taking every set piece himself.

When asked about it, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, where the reporter suggested this insistence stemmed from “an expression of excessive ambition,” Kimmich responded by immediately dispelling this ridiculous notion: “I don’t just take a corner if I haven’t been assigned to do so by the coaches who train us on set piece situations. That’s not how team sports work.” Kimmich takes the set pieces in training, ergo he takes them in the games as well. Makes sense, does it not?

But Kimmich did not want to leave it at that, instead deciding to vent some of his frustration at the dishonest criticism level at him over the years. “Of course I know that debates arise and everything is looked at very closely. For a while there was unfortunately a tendency that all you had to do was say something negative about me to end up in the headlines. That almost never had anything to do with objectivity and seriousness in the debate.”

Without a doubt, there are been legitimate reasons to criticize Kimmich and things he has done wrong. But the amount of bad faith criticism Kimmich has gotten, as the lightning rod of so many Bayern and Germany fans’ frustrations, is insane beyond belief and does not seem like it will stop anytime soon. Perhaps success in the 2024 European Championship will help his cause.