Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany will oversee his squad’s first major test of the season when the Bavarians square off with Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
“It’s good that everyone is looking forward to the game. Of course it will be an important game against the best team of the past twelve months. We’re looking forward to it. It won’t always be easy. We want to compete against a strong opponent in the Allianz Arena. Bayern are always the favourites. We want to win,” said Kompany (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “The next game is what counts in football. If you’ve performed well, you need to keep going. We’ve scored 20 goals in the last three games, but it’s my job to show what we can do better. Anything is possible in a game like against Leverkusen. We’ll prepare the team to perform to their max on Saturday. Then we move on to the next one.
“If you approach a game against Kiel or Bremen just like you do a game against Leverkusen, that shows good mentality. If you then do something different before facing Leverkusen, then you’ve lied. What counts is the next game. We want to go into the game with 100%.”
Kompany did not delve too far into what he might be cooking up to square off with Bayer Leverkusen, but insisted that the outcome probably has less to do with him and would be more about how players perform.
“I’ve already said before that when I played against the best Bayern teams in the past, we had good players, but we still didn’t have the feeling we could have the ball. FC Bayern always wants to be as dominant as possible. Our team’s attitude must always be that we want to be dominant. If a team manages to stop us from that, they deserve big respect. It’s key that it’s a home game for us. We want to show our best,” Kompany noted.
As for some of the injuries that Bayern Munich has experienced of late, Kompany was straight forward on the status of Mathys Tel, but less clear on Manuel Neuer.
“(Tell will) be available tomorrow. We have a team with a lot of competition. That’s good. It’s always about what we see in a player. We believe in Mathys Tel. He has great talent,” said Kompany. “Manu is training. We’ll make the final decision tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have everyone available and can pick the best team for the game.”
Finally, Kompany touched on his center-back pairing of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae, which has had success this season — but also has not been tested all that much.
“We didn’t allow a single chance against Bremen. That’s not just down to the defense. We need to do everything as a team. We’ve done that very well in the last few games. I have a lot of trust in the squad,” Kompany remarked.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on the mega-matchup between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga this weekend? Awesome, then check out our Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show where we break it all down! You can get the show on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
