Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich is Europe's best playmaker

6:18pm on Saturday 30th January 2021
By Stefan Bienkowski

Bayern Munich’s 4-1 victory over Hoffenheim on Saturday was anything but a typical Bundesliga win.

Hansi Flick’s side may have claimed all three points by full-time but it was a match that demanded the very best from the German champions. The visitors made Bayern work for their three points.

Fortunately for the Bavarian giants, Joshua Kimmich was on hand to once again pull the strings and, most importantly, create goals for his Bayern teammates.

Kimmich put his side in front just 32 minutes into Saturday’s game when the German international picked out the head of Jerome Boateng from the corner flag to float the ball into the top left corner.

The cross was Kimmich’s tenth assist of the season, putting him above Bayern colleague Thoams Muller in the club’s own assist table and any other player in the German Bundesliga. Not bad for a player that has missed six of Bayern’s 19 league games to date through injury.

When we compare Kimmich’s playmaking to the very best across Europe, we find that the midfielder is not only one of the best creators of goals in absolute terms, but when we consider the rate at which Kimmich is creating these assists we find he’s actually the very best among Europe’s top leagues.

The best playmakers in Europe this season

Table

Player	Team	Assists per 90
Kimmich	Bayern Munich	0.89
Coman	Bayern Munich	0.86
Demirovic	Freiburg	0.73
Mertens	Napoli	0.69
Hofmann	Gladbach	0.68
De Bruyne	Manchester City	0.64
Kruse	Union Berlin	0.62
Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	0.59
Ilic	Atalanta	0.53
Sane	Bayern Munich	0.52