Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany is ready to get things going for the second half of the season and sounds as if he is very eager to see his squad face off with Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.
“Now the second half of the season begins, that’s when the titles will be awarded. I want to see a team that wants to continue to improve. We want to concede even fewer shots on goal, we want to score even more goals. It’s a question of mentality. We also want to keep all the players fit. But now we’re concentrating on what’s important: winning the next game,” said Kompany (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “For Bayern it is always clear: no matter where we play and how strong the opponent is, we always want to win. They have a good mix of technically strong football players who can also win duels. Tim Kleindienst is on a good run upfront. They have a good balance with the wingers. It’s a club with a clear football identity. It has been like that for a long time. That always makes this game special. Generally speaking we want to win the game.”
Kompany addressed the respective situations of Daniel Peretz (bruised kidney) and Jamal Musiala (sick), who will both miss the contest.
“Manuel Neuer is back. Daniel Peretz will be out for a few weeks, we don’t know exactly how long. Hopefully he’ll be back by the end of this month or start of next month. At the moment Sven Ulreich is also back,” said Kompany. “Jamal is in the category of players that cannot be replaced one-to-one. But that doesn’t mean we have a different plan tomorrow. We still want to win. Jamal will be back very soon. It’s normal that we don’t always have all the players available. We’ve had that situation this season, too.”
The coach will have Leroy Sané available, who he thinks has made great improvements so far this season.
“Leroy has played a lot in the past few weeks, it wasn’t a gift, it was because he deserved it. Christoph and Max are in charge of the talks about the longer term. For me, only performance counts. What he is doing now is also why he is playing,” said Kompany.
Kompany also said that he used the break as a time to reflect on just about everything.
“It was nice to have Christmas with the family. This was the first time in 17 years I didn’t have to prepare a game the day after. After that of course you think about a review for the first half of the season. The first thing we see is that we were dominant, that showed on the pitch and the data. But we also lost game,” said Kompany. “It’s about finding the right balance — continuing the things we did well, we only conceded a few goals. But there are also things we can do better. I also look back at the game in Barcelona. After that, the club’s reaction was as it should be. In the difficult moments, we showed the right character as a club and as a team.”
Gladbach will surely be looking to test that resolve on Saturday, will Bayern Munich make good on its coach’s faith in the squad?
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