When Goretzka arrived at Bayern from Schalke in 2018, he was revered as a modern type of midfielder, who could essentially play every position in the middle of the field. <\/p>\n
Peter Neururer, Goretzka’s coach at his hometown club of Bochum, called him a “once-in-a-century talent” when he was 18. The sky certainly seemed the limit in the 2010s.<\/p>\n
While he has usually served as a number six, often playing alongside good friend Joshua Kimmich for Bayern and Germany, Goretzka has been used as an emergency centre-back and as a number 10 when needed.<\/p>\n
Being slotted behind a striker highlighted Goretzka’s strengths as a goalscorer. <\/p>\n
His well-timed runs and stature made him a force in the air to convert crosses. <\/p>\n
That skillset helped him at times to be picked by coaches when the competition in central midfield became increasingly tough.<\/p>\n
As an example, Goretzka suddenly looked like a key player for Germany again in March and June 2025 when the national team played in the Nations League finals and he was employed in Nagelmann’s starting line-up. <\/p>\n
But these spells where he was able to shine became increasingly rare in recent years.<\/p>\n
Injuries have plagued Goretzka from a young age to a degree that we will never exactly know where his true ceiling could have been in his 20s. <\/p>\n
He rarely suffered severe injuries but had to deal with regular setbacks for a couple of years, and often in inopportune times.<\/p>\n
Goretzka seemed to be at the height of his powers in the 2020-21 season, coming off a Champions League triumph with Bayern during the pandemic year. <\/p>\n
But instead of being the engine for Germany’s midfield at the European Championships in 2021, he missed the first group stage game due to the after-effect of a hamstring injury. <\/p>\n
His only start came against England at Wembley in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
When fit, Goretzka remained a starting XI player for Bayern until Kompany’s arrival in 2024. And even then, following a first few months as a benchwarmer, he was able to fight his way back into the starting line-up. <\/p>\n
However, the emergence of Aleksandar Pavlovic, a Munich-born midfielder and Bayern academy graduate, eventually sealed Goretzka’s fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Goretzka arrived at Bayern from Schalke in 2018, he was revered as a modern type of midfielder,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-606406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}