Bayern Munich’s Germany international Joshua Kimmich will now “have to deliver” after some critical comments following the team’s 3-2 win at bottom side Paderborn, club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
“If you are critical, you have to pick up the flag, hold it up, and everyone has to run after you,” Rummenigge said on the eve of Bayern’s Champions League match at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday.
“Then you have to deliver big performances. This is something he will himself be aspiring to,”
Kimmich, 24, should take as a reference some of the older players in the team such as captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer or striker Robert Lewandowski, Rummenigge said.
“They are good role models for Joshua as well,” he said.
Kimmich was critical of the team’s display on Saturday despite a victory which put them top of the Bundesliga.
“We are still not meeting our own requirements,” he said, while calling for a good performance against Tottenham “to show that we are still to be reckoned with internationally.”
Rummenigge said he was also unhappy with the display against Paderborn.
“I was in the dressing room afterwards, and there was no party mood,” he said. “There was a lot of self-criticisms to be felt. The team knows it has to go all out in all areas.”
Bayern goes into the game having beaten Red Star Belgrade 3-0 in Group B, while last season’s losing finalists Tottenham drew 2-2 at Olympiakos.
The Germans have not lost any of their last nine Champions League away games, with six wins and three draws. Another unbeaten game would equal a club record in the competition. Bayern have also gone 11 group-stage matches without defeat.
