Vincent Kompany, who won the Premier League four times with Manchester City and has a statue outside the Etihad Stadium, is now striving for greatness with Bayern Munich.
His appointment as Bayern boss in May 2024 raised eyebrows, given Burnley’s relegation to the Championship. However, the move appears to be a masterstroke.
Under Kompany’s guidance, Bayern won the Bundesliga last season and are on course to retain their title, sitting 12 points clear at the top. They also hold a 2-1 lead over Real Madrid going into the home leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.
Could Kompany Replace Guardiola?
Speculation continues over Pep Guardiola’s future. Kompany’s ties to Manchester City make him a potential future option for that job.
In the meantime, he is imposing his own style at Bayern, on and off the pitch. Kompany spent 11 years as a player at Manchester City, captaining them for eight of those seasons.
Bayern’s Fluid Attacking Style
There have been concerns that top teams are taking a less risky approach in attack when faced with stubborn defensive set-ups.
But Kompany’s Bayern lean into that risk, playing freely both in and out of possession. They often dominate and are exciting to watch, using an approach that involves all 11 players, starting from the back.
In the Champions League last 16, Bayern faced an Atalanta side who opted to man-mark across the pitch. Kompany rotated his players around, dragging opposition defenders out of position.
For instance, attacking midfielder Serge Gnabry frequently dropped into centre-back positions to get on the ball. His Atalanta marker followed him, opening up space for Gnabry’s team-mates. As a result, Atalanta ended up with attackers in defence and defenders in attack. Bayern Munich won 10-2 on aggregate.
Juventus head coach Luciano Spalletti was particularly impressed, noting Bayern’s fluidity. In his words: “They showed us a whole encyclopedia of movement and positioning in football.”
Guardiola has used natural midfield players in defence during build-up to help Manchester City get up the pitch this season. This example shows both Rodri and Bernardo SIlva as ‘centre-backs’ from a goal kick against Leeds.
Movement Off The Ball: Key to Kompany’s Bayern
If there is one idea that epitomises Kompany’s Bayern, it is arguably movement off the ball.
As Bayern got into settled possession against Real Madrid in the first leg of their quarter-final, the back four in their 4-2-3-1 formation changed positions in a way that troubled their opponents.
Against Madrid’s front two of Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe, midfielder Joshua Kimmich dropped deep, forming a back three with the two centre-backs. This gave Munich a three-against-two overload.
Full-backs Josip Stanisic and Ko