Leon Goretzka has played his way back into Vincent Kompany's plans at Bayern Munich. - © IMAGO/Markus Ulmer

bundesliga

Leon Goretzka leads the way among Bayern Munich’s options to partner Joshua Kimmich in central midfield

22.01.2025

While Aleksandar Pavlović and João Palhinha had competed for the one spot alongside Joshua Kimmich in Bayern Munich’s midfield at the start of the season, Leon Goretzka has worked his way to the forefront of Vincent Kompany's thinking.

bundesliga.com assesses Goretzka's impressive personal comeback and the embarrassment of riches the league leaders have in the position...

The first thing to get out the way is the fact that there has been some serious competition to play alongside Kimmich. He may be playing at right-back as captain of Germany, but at Bayern he is absolutely nailed on in midfield, and it appears there’s no room for debate there.

The 29-year-old is the only player to have featured for every single minute under Kompany this season - in all competitions - and he’s spent the whole time as a starting midfielder. There have been in-game tactical variations where he drops between centre-backs or even wide of them, but his role has been as the central cog. He has shown his attributes as a deep-lying playmaker too with five assists to his name in the opening 18 matchdays, hitting more passes from open play than anyone else in the Bundesliga and landing 93 percent of those with a teammate.

Watch: The best of Kimmich

Leon Goretzka

Prior to the emergence of Pavlović and Palhinha’s arrival, there was usually little debate around Goretzka’s claim to a starting midfield spot. He chipped in with six goals and seven assists in the league last season, but - after missing out on a place at UEFA Euro 2024 - a single minute of action across the first six Bundesliga matches of 2024/25 made it abundantly clear that he was not among Kompany's preferred options at the time. Much of that was attributed to his style of play, which is far more box-to-box than what you’d consider of a classic ‘number six’.

Watch: Goretzka in resurgent form

Anyone who has seen Goretzka play over the years would instantly know that he is not the type who would have resignedly accepted that situation without wanting to prove afresh - with his great professionalism and dedication - just how much he has to offer.

He gained increasing playing time as a substitute before getting his first start under Kompany in the Bundesliga in a 1-0 win at St. Pauli on Matchday 10 in November. With Palhinha joining Pavlović on the Bayern injury list immediately after that, the 57-time Germany international was able to gain a prolonged run in the Bayern side, before coming off the bench to strike his first goal of the season against Heidenheim on Matchday 13.

A total of six starts by Matchday 18 gave Goretzka ample time to remind Kompany and the watching world how useful he can be in central positions, thanks to his steely defensive talents, and also just how much he has to offer further forward. He has over 48 Bundesliga goals and more than 45 assists over the course of 275 appearances at this level with Bayern and Schalke, after all.

Watch: Goretzka at the double as Bayern beat Wolfsburg

A brace in a 3-2 win over Wolfsburg on Matchday 18 capped his return to favour. Kompany said after his stellar showing that "he is a role model for the whole team", while captain Manuel Neuer reflected that the rest of the squad "always supported him and knew his time would come."

Having forced his way to the forefront of Kompany's thinking, Goretzka is now seemingly the man in pole position to tie down the second central midfield spot for the rest of the season.

Aleksandar Pavlović

Pavlović’s rise definitely falls into the category of ‘meteoric’. From youth player and ball boy who’s been on the Bayern books since 2011 to one of the first names on the team sheet when fit and now a senior Germany international, the 20-year-old has had a wild ride since his Bundesliga debut in October 2023.

In fact, such was Pavlović’s impact on the team that he actually ousted Kimmich in midfield and saw him moved to right-back under Tuchel. And with Kimmich restored to midfield this term under Kompany, the Munich native then managed to keep new signing Palhinha out of the side at the start of the season.

Watch: The best of Pavlović

A collarbone injury at the start of October disrupted his season, but he is fit again and remains an exciting option for Kompany to have. Even at such a young age, Pavlović has proven himself to be extremely assured and confident on the ball, completing 95 percent of passes this season.

Being an attacking presence isn’t really what’s required of the man alongside Kimmich, with Pavlović mustering up only four shots this term, although one did win Goal of the Month with his sole strike of the season to earn a draw with Bayer Leverkusen.

Watch: Pavlović’s September Goal of the Month winner

João Palhinha

It was no secret that Bayern were on the verge of signing Palhinha in summer 2023 until the deal fell through at the last minute on deadline day. In hindsight, without that moment, Pavlović may not have gotten his chance last season.

Either way, the Portugal international did finally get to sign in Munich this summer just gone. He was perhaps expected to come straight into the team after joining from Fulham but initially found his path blocked by that man Pavlović, and started just once in all competitions prior to the latter’s injury in mid-October.

As such, he only played 347 minutes in the Bundesliga over the first 10 matchdays, compared to 553 minutes on the bench. Bayern looked far more solid with the 29-year-old in the side in that period, though. They conceded just twice with him on the pitch (on average one every 174 minutes), including a run of four consecutive clean sheets in the league, of which he played 220 out of 360 minutes. In the 553 minutes without him in action at that stage of the season, Kompany’s men let in five goals at a rate of one every 111 minutes.

An injury sustained on international duty in November has kept him sidelined ever since, and for now all Kompany can do is ponder what he could bring to the side when he is expected to return in the coming weeks.

Palhinha’s primary role within the team - as evidenced in his early-season showings - is to shore things up defensively and provide a shield to the back line, which has held notably high under the Belgian coach.

He’s shown on several occasions that he’s got the reading of the game to cut out potential danger, loves a well-timed sliding challenge and has so far won 54.3 percent of his duels in the Bundesliga, of which he contests some 24 per 90 minutes – more than the other defensive-minded midfield options. A pass completion of 94.6 percent also demonstrates his cool head on the ball, while he also attempts the most long passes per game (five) of any Bayern midfielder except Kimmich, suggesting Palhinha is far from a one-trick pony.

Konrad Laimer

Laimer made his name as a tenacious ball-winning midfielder at RB Leipzig, earning his move to Munich in 2023 in a transfer that had been agreed the previous January under Julian Nagelsmann. By the time he arrived at the Allianz Arena, Tuchel was in charge, and the Austrian would play 43 times in all competitions in 2023/24. In fact, there was only one match that he didn’t feature in when not injured.

The Salzburg native was used in central midfield and at right-back in almost equal measure last season. This term under Kompany, he’s been predominantly deployed at right-back, where he has made all seven of his competitive starts. On four occasions he’s come on as a late substitute in midfield.

Watch: The best of Laimer last season

His combative nature, combined with improving attacking thrust, also make him the ideal candidate on paper to sit alongside Kimmich and do the dirty work. Although his success rate in challenges is well down on other midfield candidates (40 percent in 2024/25, mostly as a full-back), Laimer is known as a fast and fiercely determined operator.

Perhaps the most likely determining factor in where Laimer plays is actually injuries to others. He and the left-footed Raphaël Guerreiro, who has also played in central midfield many times before as well, have both been used at right-back primarily because of injuries to Josip Stanišić and Sacha Boey. The latter is still some way off a comeback and has struggled to stay injury-free since joining last year, but Stanišić returned to make his first matchday squad of the season in the win against Wolfsburg, giving Laimer more competition at right-back that may potentially force him more into the battle for midfield spots once again.

Jamal Musiala

In the past, Musiala’s name would often get thrown into the mix when debating one of the two central midfielder roles in Bayern’s usual 4-2-3-1 formation. He certainly has the ability and calmness on the ball to dictate the play and has been used in the position a few times. By starting him deeper, it also allows the coach to pick a second number 10, like Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry or Michael Olise.

Nevertheless, it’s very unlikely right now that we’ll see Musiala deployed alongside Kimmich. It would go against the balance that Kompany has instilled in his team of late, while also shifting the job of holding six onto Kimmich, which isn’t what works best.

On top of that, Musiala has emerged as a real goal threat this season. As well as the dribbling and finishing ability with his feet that we all knew he had, he’s also added killer runs into the box to get on the end of balls and score like a centre-forward.

Watch: Musiala - from initiator to finisher

The 21-year-old has nine goals in 15 Bundesliga outings already this term and 14 in 24 across all competitions, with several headed goals in a season he is without doubt adding more strings to his bow and developing into the complete goalscorer. Dropping him deeper risks halting that progress and removing a valuable asset from Bayern’s attacking arsenal.

Tom Bischof

Another brilliant youthful option is to be thrown into Bayern's central midfield mix next season in the shape of Bischof, with Bayern announcing that he is to join the club on a free transfer in the summer.

Watch: The best of Tom Bischof

The comfort on the ball that the 19-year-old midfielder has shown at current club Hoffenheim was mentioned by Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund as a key reason they wanted to sign him. He notably uses his slick passing ability to provide attacking impetus despite operating mainly in the deep midfield role. Bischof set up more shots than any other player at his club in the opening 18 matchdays, and the 56 shots he has been involved in over that time was the joint most with Andrej Kramarić.

Bischof has clearly shown he also has the potential to develop into a trusted set-piece specialist like Kimmich, with his first Bundesliga goal coming via a free-kick curled into the net during a 4-3 win over RB Leipzig on Matchday 11. The 54 percent of challenges that he won by the time his summer switch was announced in January demonstrates a defensive efficiency to match Palhinha. With further development likely ahead of him during a Bayern deal penned to 2029, there is every chance Bischof makes a starting spot his own one day in Munich.

While Goretzka has worked his way admirably into pole position to partner Kimmich for now, the way Kompany shuffles his pack is set to be a fascinating and unpredictable situation to monitor for the rest of the season and beyond. Whatever the constellation and the trajectory of the individuals involved, there is no doubt Bayern have the kind of quality in that position to help achieve their aim of once again bossing the German game.