Football – Bundesliga: FC Bayern Munich urgently needs victories now

FC Bayern Munich’s agenda awakens associations – and this may be particularly true for the high school graduates in the record champions’ squad. Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller and Leon Goretzka could feel like they are in an exam phase. For months, their new coach Vincent Kompany had been teaching the team about dominant ball possession, pressing, counter-pressing and very high defending. Learning successes quickly became apparent. And it also became clear how much fun the players had with the learning content and the football teacher’s didactics.

Kompany’s class completed the smaller tests with second division team Ulm (4:0), newly promoted Holstein Kiel (6:1) and in Bremen (5:0) with flying colors, as well as the homework in the Champions League against outsiders Zagreb (9:2). In the more difficult tests that followed with a 1-1 draw against Leverkusen, Aston Villa (0-1) and Eintracht Frankfurt (3-3), Bayern continued to earn top marks for their style and hard work. However, the full return never came. The last four of the five goals conceded all came after counterattacks against Munich’s very high defense.

Now, after the international break, the second part of the exam phase is coming up. And once again it’s about winning the first victories against strong opponents with the very attractive and praised Kompany style. First of all, this Saturday in the Bundesliga against VfB Stuttgart, the comparison will take place for the 111th time, in which the old term “Südschlager” is currently experiencing a renaissance. The Munich team then travel to FC Barcelona in the Champions League with Bayern’s former coach Hansi Flick. The second round game in the DFB Cup against FSV Mainz is also on the agenda at the end of October. Every time it’s about achieving success – so that the unpleasant debate that has already flared up about the risks of the daredevil style doesn’t grow any further.

After the last three games, Kompany is already fighting questions about whether a little more emphasis should be placed on defensive protection. “It’s about what the analysis has shown: that we were dominant in these games, that we had many, many, many more chances in these games than our opponents,” the 38-year-old Belgian replied in a press conference on Friday Flashback to Leverkusen, Villa and Frankfurt.

Of course you want to “optimize” the way you play. Kompany’s clear message: “If you remain objective, then it would be so stupid to change everything because the result didn’t work out once or twice.” The important question for him is: “If we play this game ten times, how “We often win?” Of course, not everything is perfect, which is why the goal is to improve details. “But we have 100 percent belief that we will be successful in this way,” says Kompany.

Against Stuttgart would be a good time for this because last season they only finished third in the table behind champions Leverkusen and VfB – partly due to a 1:3 defeat in Stuttgart. “That’s why it still bothers us a bit,” said goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. He “definitely expects a difficult home game.” Thomas Müller is expecting an attractive game because of the offensive orientation of both teams and says of Stuttgart: “They are a big number now.” Bayern will have to do without Jamal Musiala and Hiroki Ito, who are still injured.

It would be all the more encouraging for Bayern to defeat VfB in Kompany style in the second part of their testing phase. In any case, there is great enthusiasm in the club about the impressive and extremely powerful style of play. “I’m very happy with the sport because we’ve found our way back to a positive culture that’s simply fun,” said long-time CEO and current supervisory board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. »I like this high pressing. It reminds me of the times under Jupp Heynckes, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti or Hansi Flick, when we celebrated this kind of ‘fun football’.”

According to Rummenigge, the club experienced its most successful period back then. At the same time, he understands the recent criticism after the three games he didn’t win. However, he does not consider fundamental doubts appropriate. His recommendation: »We are well advised not to tell the coach that he needs to correct something defensively. Because what I saw in Frankfurt I probably haven’t seen in this quality for a long time.”