“The comparison is unfair”: DFB sporting director Rudi Völler weighs in on the debate surrounding Joshua Kimmich

Sporting director Rudi Völler has played down the debates surrounding Joshua Kimmich's role in the Germany national team.

Like many players from the original squad, Kimmich also had to leave the Germany camp midway through the international break after the 1-1 draw in the Netherlands and the disappointing 1-0 home defeat against Greece. Kimmich delivered a decent display against the Netherlands, but against Greece he turned in an unfortunate performance, and his link-up with Felix Nmecha looked dysfunctional. Germany coach Jürgen Klopp ignored his public plea to stay with the squad.

Then, in the next match against Serbia, Tom Bischof, Alexander Pavlovic and Florian Wirtz lit up Germany's midfield. That sparked public debate among fans and pundits over whether the national team might actually be better off without Kimmich. Klopp did not always handle the subject particularly well in his press conferences and interviews.

Rudi Völler: "Jo Kimmich is a wonderful captain"

Still, Völler sees it "completely calmly" and backed the 31-year-old from Bayern Munich without hesitation. "Jo Kimmich is a wonderful captain, a wonderful player and will bring us a lot of joy in the coming years," said Völler ahead of the fourth and final international of this period on Sunday evening in Thessaloniki against Greece. Klopp again named Bischof, Pavlovic and Wirtz in the starting line-up.

For Völler, no direct comparison should be made between the different line-ups because the opponents were of differing strength. "The first two games were difficult games. Serbia were certainly a bit weaker then and then you look a bit better," Völler said.

As he sees it, the players used in the first two matches would "probably also have beaten Serbia. I'm sticking my neck out a bit there. That's why the comparison is a bit unfair."