Being a coach is not an easy job because it requires you to find out how to set your team up properly and adapt to different tactics employed by opponent teams. That’s only a small part of the whole thing, but what it boils down to—communication—is what Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany stands by.
“It’s probably the most important thing: to have clarity,” the Belgian manager said (UEFA via @iMiaSanMia). “You communicate it every day – clarity is not just tactical, it’s just clarity of who you are as a team, who you are as a group. The rest, I think you communicate in different ways. Sometimes it’s on a video screen or on the pitch, but it’s also your body language, it’s the feeling.”
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“I come from Brussels, and we speak so many different languages. Just in Brussels alone, you could be speaking French, Dutch, maybe a little bit of Arabic or Lingala from Congo, Italian, Spanish, it’s all mixed. And you find that unless you communicate with people, nobody will do what you want them to do, and that’s a big part of what we learn. I take it with me when I communicate with the group.
“Communication is also very individual, so there are some things, some messages, that can only be said in a certain way to certain people. But then there are core messages, where they have to accept as well that you are going to communicate in the way that is necessary to achieve your goal. It’s crucial, and it’s not going to be any less in the future. We try and stay on that line.”
