Bayern Munich has ripped off seven wins and seven clean sheets in a row since a Champions League calamity at Barcelona.
The resurgence has fans wondering: just what has been in head coach Vincent Kompany’s secret sauce to spur this turnaround? Kasper Schmeichel put just that question to Kompany in his post-game interview for CBS Sports — after Kompany’s Bayern took apart Paris Saint-Germain in a sound 1-0 victory that, if anything, could have been more lopsided.
Watch the interview — as captured by @iMiaSanMia — below:
Was it the famous high line pulled slightly back? Not according to Kompany, who cited the pressing job Bayern managed — but also stressed individual quality.
“It’s the choose-your-moments, I think that’s always important,” Kompany noted.
The Bayern head man also suggested that Barça, perhaps, was the aberration rather than the trend, noting that Bayern had also kept a clean sheet the match before that — a 4-0 win over VfB Stuttgart. If there were changes since Barcelona, they were minor, he said. “Tweaks.”
But what sort of tweaks?
“Just individual positioning, individual habits…a similar idea as every other team,” Kompany explained. “We want to be compact, we want the distance between the lines to be small. If we force them down the side we want the opposite side to be really narrow to the ball to give us the overload around the ball. So those principles remain, but for whatever reason, sometimes you play against a better team. We got beat and we learn from that game.”
As for navigating the new Champions League format...
“I try to not overthink it,” Kompany said, doing some math before concluding: “But with Bayern it’s always quite easy, you have to win every game. So focusing on the next game is enough as well.”
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s massive 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League? Awesome, then check out our Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
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