Back in May, Bayern Munich shocked the footballing world with the announcement that Vincent Kompany would be replacing Thomas Tuchel as the team’s new coach for the upcoming season. With Bayern having been turned down by the likes of Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann, Roberto De Zerbi and Oliver Glasner amongst others, the appointment of the Belgian was viewed by many as an act of desperation from the Bayern chiefs.
When one considers that Bayern’s top brass actually made a U-turn and tried to keep Tuchel after being rejected by Leverkusen Coach- Xabi Alonso, then it would suggest that Kompany was more of an afterthought than an option. It was later revealed that talks between Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Pep Guardiola proved to be the deciding factor in Kompany’s appointment.
Nonetheless, despite the unflattering circumstances under which Kompany was hired following two seasons of mixed fortunes in charge of English club Burnley, he arrived in Bavaria in high spirits with the backing of Bayern’s Board of Directors. After roughly six months at Bayern, based on the results to date, it appears that Bayern and Kompany were the right fit. Having stated that, let us now look at why credit is due to Bayern’s Belgian coach.
Despite clearly being a work-in progress with Bayern Munich, Kompany’s detractors gave him little chance of survival, believing him to be in an environment that demanded immediate results. Even so, Kompany courageously backed himself to succeed by implementing an attacking possession-based style of football with counter-pressing and a high line of defense.
Bayern’s new coach got the season off to an impressive start, despite some clear vulnerability to counter-attacks from the opposition, with six consecutive victories in all competitions, including a record-setting 9-2 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in the newly formatted European Champions League.
The six-game win streak was halted at the end of September when reigning Bundesliga Champions-Leverkusen managed to come away from the Allianz Arena with a share of the points following a 1-1 draw despite clear domination from the home team.
Bayern then hit a slump in October which saw them losing two games on the road in the Champions League- 1-0 against Aston Villa and 4-1 to Barcelona. A 3-3 draw at Frankfurt and a 4-0 win at home over Stuttgart in between those two losses did little to silence the critics and rightfully so. In the losses against their European foes and the draw at Frankfurt Bayern struggled to defend against the counter-attacks. Somewhat perplexingly Kompany remained calm and upbeat in the face of adversity despite being unable to plug the gaps at the back.
However, despite taking some time, the lessons learned from the losses against Aston Villa and Barcelona eventually sunk in and with them, a new resolve in defense had arrived. Kompany made some subtle tweaks to the high-line defense by letting his center-backs- Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano sit just slightly deeper without compromising the high press. It was a most impressive performance from Kim and Upamecano, particularly from Kim who had to battle through the last six weeks of the Hindrunde on painkillers to cope with recurring knee pain. With Hiroki Ito still unavailable due to a pre-season injury there exists no adequate replacement for either center-back in the starting XI.
Following those tweaks to the defense, Bayern then enjoyed a seven-game win streak in all competitions with seven clean sheets. This particular win streak eventually came to an end against Dortmund in Der Klassiker, at the end of November, in a 1-1 draw at Signal Iduna Park. The packed schedule and injury concerns eventually got the better of Bayern in this game as Harry Kane’s evening was cut short after 33 minutes with a hamstring injury.
Bayern then went on to experience mixed fortunes in December. First up, in a DFB Pokal round of 16 matchup against Leverkusen Bayern lost 0-1 at the Allianz Arena and with it said goodbye to any hopes of the treble this season. It should be noted, however, that Bayern played with ten men for over 70 minutes after Manuel Neuer was red-carded early on. Some consolation can be taken from the fact that Bayern statistically dominated the game despite playing a man down.
In the next three games, all without Harry Kane in the lineup, Bayern beat Heidenheim 4-2 in the Bundesliga, then smashed Shakhtar Donetsk 1-5 in the Champions League, but lost 2-1 at Mainz in the Bundesliga. For the loss against Mainz besides Harry Kane, both Dayot Upamecano and Alphonso Davies were also absent.
For the last game of 2024, in front of a home crowd, with Kane, Upamecano and Davies back in the starting XI, Bayern brought the curtain down on the Hindrunde with an emphatic 5-1 statement victory over fellow title contenders RB Leipzig to go into the break with a four-point lead over the reigning champions.
Considering the number of accumulated man-hours lost due the absence of Hiroki Ito and Josip Stanisic who suffered pre-season injuries and are both yet to return to competitive action, along with further injuries during the season to the likes of Boey, Pavlovic, Palhinha, Kane, Neuer, Davies and Upamecano it would be irrational not to give Vincent Kompany his fair recognition for a job well done despite the odds.