Given that we have now reached the November international break, it may be a good time to assess the beginning of the Vincent Kompany era at Bayern Munich. The first ten Bundesliga matches are now in the past and half of the Champions League’s league phase is over, as are two rounds of the German Cup. The former Belgium and Manchester City defender has certainly built a fantastic reputation as a player. But given his relative lack of experience as a coach, many saw the Munich hot-seat as too challenging for him at this early part of his coaching career. It’s safe to say that the coach managed to prove many of those doubters wrong already. Let’s have a look at the first few months of Kompany as Bayern coach.
The First Few Months of Vincent Kompany As Bayern Munich Coach
Statistics
The overall numbers speak quite favourably of the start of Kompany as Bayern coach. He has had 16 competitive games so far, winning 12, drawing two and losing two. In this period, the team have scored 52 goals and conceded 14. That gives him a points per match average of 2.38.
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In the Bundesliga, Bayern are currently five points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig. Since the latter’s loss to Borussia Dortmund the weekend before last, the Bavarians are the only unbeaten side in the league. The team’s only two draws there came against champions Bayer Leverkusen (1-1) and highflying Eintracht Frankfurt (3-3) in late September and early October respectively.
The Bavarians dominated both matches and should have won them.
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The Champions League is the only true blemish on Kompany’s record at Bayern so far, despite the fact that his team began the competition in style, beating Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 in the opener of European play. That was followed up by an unfortunate 1-0 loss to Aston Villa on matchday 2, a 4-1 disaster at Barcelona, and a recent 1-0 win over Benfica. That leaves them in 17th place of the current league phase table.
Though there are only four games left, at least three they should easily win and thus hopefully finish the league phase in the top eight, in order to reach the Round of 16 directly.
Kompany’s men easily navigated SSV Ulm and Mainz 05 in the first two rounds of the domestic cup. But a much more difficult test awaits them against Leverkusen in early December there.
Vincent Kompany’s Tactics
In the first few months of Kompany as Bayern coach, he largely kept in place the team’s decades-long use of the 4-2-3-1 formation. The Belgian tactician did however make major adjustments in the way that Bayern play. He prefers a high- pressing style in which even the centre- back pairing spend much time in the opposition’s half of the field.
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He said that as a player, whenever he would go up against Bayern, whether with Hamburger SV or even with Manchester City, he knew that his team would not have much of the ball. Kompany had great respect for those Bayern sides and now that he himself is at the club, he wants his team to dominate any opposition in the same way that they did.
While it was somewhat naïve to go to Barcelona with that game plan, and it was counterproductive to march forward 3-2 up in stoppage time at Frankfurt before that and concede the equaliser, the team have learnt from those mistakes.
Since Frankfurt, the Bavarians have not conceded in the domestic competitions and since Barcelona, they have in fact not conceded at all.
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The team are much fitter than they were last season under Thomas Tuchel. They run far more than they did then. As a result, there are virtually no muscular injuries anymore. Those had decimated the squad last term.
Final Thoughts
The time with Kompany as Bayern coach has mostly been quite impressive so far. As we have mentioned before, the Champions League is his only blemish. It is important that the team correct this in time, given that this season’s UCL final will be in Allianz Arena in Munich.
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Still, former club president Uli Hoeneß has even said that he finally enjoys going to the games again, which he put down to Kompany’s style of football. The biggest issue will be for the club to trust the process and ultimately let the coach do his job, even if results are not always perfect. If that happens, the Bavarians could have a great era with Kompany as Bayern coach in the years to come.
