When Vincent Kompany first arrived at Bayern Munich, on the back of getting relegated at Burnley FC, he was always going to have to convince the players at the club of his ideas and his strong leadership rather than his achievements. To his credit, he did so right away, as described by winger Kingsley Coman.
“From the first moment [Kompany] told us about the way he sees the game and wants us to play and that we have to trust him on that. I like it,” Coman stated, via @iMiaSanMia. “I didn’t play against him, but you could see as a player that he has a strong mentality. When we won the Champions League [with current FC Barcelona manager Hansi Flick as head coach], we were also playing this high pressing game. The only problem with high press is that there’s space at the back. But I think when you have fast defenders, the space at the back is not that much of a problem. When you put so much pressure, the ball doesn’t even arrive at the back that often. The most difficult thing is to keep up the intensity and repeat it every 3 days.”
Indeed, repeating the trick every three days is difficult. After all, this is the first season in which Kompany has had to manage a team that is simultaneously in a top 5 league as well as a European competition. As of the time of writing, he is handling it well. Just as he pushed the right buttons upon his arrival, he needs to carry that conviction through to the end of the season.
