Pepa's Student from the Championship is at Bayern. How will Munich Play under Vincent Kompany's Guidance?

Formation and Principles

Bayern made a smart move here. Kompany is a dogmatic coach who favors attacking football. His primary formation is Munich's beloved 4-2-3-1. Still, in the Premier League, he often used 4-4-2 (which could create an exciting partnership between Harry Kane and Mathys Tel). Interestingly, the full-backs usually move into midfield, a tactic familiar to Noussair Mazraoui, Konrad Laimer, and Joshua Kimmich.

Squad

Seeing how much Bayern's squad will change over the summer is intriguing. It's high time they found a replacement for Neuer, and Daniel Peretz is still an unknown quantity. There still needs to be a gap on the right flank, and Munich might be left without Davies on the left. They have four renowned central defenders, but none had a consistent season. Even the central midfield has weakened due to Kimmich's issues (they're already linking Crystal Palace youngster Adam Wharton to the team – Freund continues to focus on the English market). Overall, Bayern has many problematic positions, but untapped players in the squad could fill these gaps (Kim Min-Jae, Konrad Laimer, Sacha Boey, Raphael Guerreiro, Bryan Zaragoza).

Newcomers

It will be interesting to see how Kompany and Christoph Freund, who joined Bayern from the Red Bull system, handle the summer. At Burnley, Vincent succeeded thanks to top-notch scouting of players from Belgium and the Manchester City academy. At Anderlecht alone, he worked with Zeno Debast (who could strengthen the problematic central defense), Sergio Gomez (a potential replacement for Davies), Bart Verbruggen (a possible successor to Neuer), Joshua Zirkzee, and Jeremy Doku. At Burnley, he worked with an attractive, versatile defender, Vitinho, and German center-back Jordan Beyer.

Youth Players

Bayern has enormous resources not only in their main squad but also among their youth. This includes Bundesliga standouts Aleksandar Pavlovic and Lovro Zvonarek, Josip Stanišić, who returned from Bayer and loaned players Paul Wanner and Frans Krätzig. These players alone could fill many problematic positions, and Vincent Kompany excels at working with young talent – just look at the progress of Ian Maatsen, who went from the Championship to the Champions League final in a year.

Published by Patrick Jane
03.06.2024