Bayern Munich: How Vincent Kompany turned the German club into a juggernaut

Kompany, a Manchester City great, played three seasons under Pep Guardiola towards the end of his career. One can see a lot of Guardiola in the way the former centre-back and his assistants handle possession and how they set up attacking plays. Positional play and rotation within the formation are key to allowing the ball to turn almost effortlessly.

Last season, Kompany actually tried to introduce positional patterns, where his players were asked to occupy certain areas or lanes, but this year, players are rotating from one area to another frequently, making it difficult for defenses to cover without leaving any gaps towards and into the penalty area.

Now, this is completely unheard of when it comes to Bayern’s attacking style. Guardiola himself applied similar patterns after his arrival in 2013, but the Catalan failed to lead them to the Champions League final despite making real progress. During Guardiola’s three-year tenure, he brought in midfielder Joshua Kimmich, one of the most promising German players at the time.

Kimmich is still with Bayern and may have an explanation as to why the team looks more fearful than it did at the time.

“When I joined ten years ago, we were equipped with amazing individual quality. We had 23, 24, 25 world-class players,” he said on Saturday.

“But when I see now how we work as a team and are happy together and for each other, when I see how we bring these principles to the field, how we run for each other, that is very special. This was not so much the case. It was different 10 years ago. Then, we had more selfishness within the team.”