Why Kimmich and Goretzka may be at the heart of all that's gone wrong for Bayern this season

Leon Goretzka is something of a rarity in modern football in the sense that he often gives blunt, honest reactions after a football match. Rather than some dull, PR-trained nonsense that puts the interviewer and viewer to sleep in the post-match huddle, the towering box-to-box midfielder rarely shies away from strong words. On Sunday night, the German international was once again on hand to succinctly sum up how he and his Bayern Munich team mates were feeling after their defeat to Bochum. “It feels like a never-ending horror film,” admitted Goretzka. “Everything is just going against us at the moment.”

Indeed, if that wasn’t evident from the match itself it certainly was clear for all to see when the final Bundesliga table took form at the end of the matchday. Bayer Leverkusen aren’t eight points above the club that have won the last 11 league championships out of sheer, dumb luck or an unexpected act of god: it’s simply because Xabi Alonso’s side are a well-oiled machine doing exactly what’s being asked of them from one week to the next and Thomas Tuchel’s team are not. And, unfortunately for poor Goretzka, he may be one of the fundamental problems with this Bayern side this season.