Philipp Lahm: ‘Kompany and Bayern are suited – he is a personality players respect’

How has Vincent Kompany done at Bayern Munich so far?

There are different ways to answer that question and different conclusions to draw. Much has gone well, though. They have an eight-point lead in the Bundesliga and are through to the last 16 of the Champions League, and that speaks to Kompany’s suitability to Bayern, which was such an area of contention at first.

It’s really important to remember that Bayern is a players’ club. This means that, as a coach, it really helps to have experienced an intense playing career. After all, the club has been run by former footballers for decades — be it Franz Beckenbauer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge or Uli Hoeness — and that makes it unique in top-flight football in having been shaped by those on the pitch.

A good player does not necessarily make a good coach — that’s not what I mean — but theorists without practical experience have always had a hard time on the bench in Munich. My favourite coaches were footballers, like Carlo Ancelotti, Jupp Heynckes or Pep Guardiola, and that was also true for my team-mates.

A former footballer is most likely to understand what players have to achieve in a specific situation on the pitch. He is more familiar with the difficulties, opportunities and risks from his own experience. This empathy creates closeness and care between a coach and a player. That’s why Ancelotti gets along so well with excellent players.

That’s why Kompany and Bayern are suited to one another. As a centre-back, he was intelligent, charismatic and thought strategically. His appointment came as a surprise because his CV did not make him a candidate, but that kind of experience is not everything. It is the Bundesliga’s style to give young coaches without a track record a chance; German football is keen to experiment.

What he was able to bring matters: a personality that players respect.

As captain and defence “coach” at Manchester City, he proved that he knew how to lead a team. It sounds like a cliche, but it equipped him with one of two prerequisites for the Bayern job. It gave him the ability to recognise and sense who can work with whom — as in which players complement each other on the pitch, and what combinations needed to be in place for proper chemistry to develop in the team.

That’s important; not every coach in the past has understood that.

Like every other coach in Munich, Kompany has a monopoly on the national market. FC Bayern always have the strongest squad in Germany and this explains the lead over Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. Although Xabi Alonso’s team dominated Bayern when they met earlier this month, they were unable to beat them.

Bayern deliver the better results thanks to their individual class and, if the team manages a run of six or seven wins in the decisive phase of the season that is beginning now, they will consolidate that position, progress beyond Leverkusen in the Champions League and then — perhaps — be a force in Europe.

And Kompany seems to have understood something else: Bayern is not like other clubs.

Players have great influence, and everyone knows that Hoeness and Rummenigge are always present. It means that if you want to be successful as a coach here, you not only have to be tactically good, but also diplomatic. Kompany seems to understand the balance of that power. He stays out of internal battles and that’s clever.

Rummenigge and Hoeness watch on at the Allianz Arena (Stefan Matzke – sampics/Corbis via Getty Images)

So, Kompany has the first prerequisite: the understanding of how chemistry works, from his experience on the pitch. But does he also have the second? Does he also have an “add on”; his own style, a philosophy, the Pep factor?

That we still need to find out.

Guardiola worked on every conceivable detail with us in his three years in Munich. He led us very intensely. We became a swarm under him.

But I also remember my beginnings as a professional and working under Ottmar Hitzfeld. His outstanding leadership qualities were down to his rhetoric and the way he spoke to us. Verbally, he was very skilful and he made you pay attention to everything he said.

Heynckes, with whom we won the treble in 2013, communicated in a way that allowed his experience as a player and coach to transfer to the team. He always knew who the best five, the best 10 and the best 15 players were and how they worked best together. That strengthened the principle of performance and the authority of the trainer.

That is what makes a team greater than the sum of its parts. And that is what has been missing in Munich over the last four or five years.

It is obvious that Kompany was influenced by his former coach, Guardiola, who revolutionised modern possession football. Guardiola paid attention to absolutely everything in training. He was like a composer obsessed with every note that his orchestra played and would make his view clear to everyone about everything.

Kompany takes instruction from Guardiola in 2018 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Kompany is not a copy; every student goes their own way. He also favours possession and wants to dominate the game. His Bayern team defend courageously man-to-man, which means a high level of risk. However, he seems to give his players more freedom than Guardiola.

The defence has stabilised under Kompany. In recent years, there has been a lack of concentration, no clear hierarchy among the players and many goals conceded. Now Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae seem to form a secure duo. Joshua Kimmich’s role in central midfield is also more clearly defined.

Kompany’s signature is evident in his organisation, but also in his patience when playing with the ball.

Does his attacking style work at the highest level? There is still a lack of evidence. His team have difficulties with their overall balance and a few areas are not operating yet at the highest level. The midfield, for example, is susceptible to counter attacks. The possession can often be too slow, the progress towards goal is sometimes indecisive, and there is a lack of penetration in that final third, where attacks too often break down.

Bayern are currently also unable to attack and defend to a high standard for 90 minutes. And they don’t take every opponent seriously enough. Most recently that showed in the game against Holstein Kiel, to whom they nearly lost a 4-0 lead before winning 4-3. It was there in the two games against Celtic, too, during which the performance dropped at important moments.

Kompany needs time and support, and Bayern is not an easy club to work for given the need for success in the short term. After all, the last coach to stay longer than three years was Hitzfeld. That’s the downside of being a players’ club.

But I trust him to develop the team and refine his playing ideas. He has the tools to succeed.

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(Top photo: F. Noever/FC Bayern via Getty Images)