Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany turned 40 on Friday and his “present” was a press conference ahead of the St. Pauli matchup.
Of course, the St. Pauli tilt is just days ahead of the team’s Champions League leg two contest vs. Real Madrid in the Champions League.
“We have a lot of respect for St. Pauli. If you look at their recent matches, they’ve always been incredibly difficult to play against. They defend very compactly and well. It’s sometimes hard to understand why they’re down there in the table.
There’s not much difference to teams that are five or six places higher,” said Kompany (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “Our goal is to always put in the very best performance. And the bar is very high because we’ve won 16 games in a row this season. That’s the benchmark, and we want to achieve that again in the final phase of the season. That’s always a common goal. But when we look back, we know we’re doing a lot of things right at the moment. But there’s always room for improvement.”
When asked about a possible rotation, Kompany — as per usual — did not reveal much about his plan of resting players ahead of leg two vs. Real Madrid.
“To be honest, I don’t know everything yet; I need the latest information from training about how the boys are feeling. I want a team tomorrow that’s just as motivated as the one that played against Madrid – one that has the same concentration, motivation, and intensity as in Madrid – that’s normally never a problem for us. I want to see how fresh the players are so they can play with the same energy against St. Pauli as they did against Madrid. If we make changes, we don’t want to lose what we’ve been doing so far,” said Kompany. “Harry Kane was fine after the game; he played a bit beyond his pain threshold. But there was no reaction the next day, and that’s the most important thing. We have to look at what we’ve done this season: we’re only at this point on April 10th because the whole squad has been involved.
“If we make a few changes, then we’ve been doing it that way all season. In November or October, you could have asked whether it was the right thing to do or not. But once we’ve come this far, you can’t ask that anymore. We won’t change anything about that at St. Pauli. The competition for places here also fuels our ambition. I don’t know who will play yet; I’ll think about that tonight.”
When pressed about the goalkeeper spot — Manuel Nuer vs. Jonas Urbig — Kompany did not divulge anything.
“We haven’t had much time after the game in Madrid. We’ll discuss that today and decide. If Manu says he doesn’t feel any issues, then he will play. For a goalkeeper it’s important to keep the flow going,” Kompany said.
Finally, Kompany was asked about his birthday and the head coach, who turned 40 today, said there was not much time for celebration.
“Short answer: No, I can’t really celebrate much. But if a surprise happens, then I don’t have much to do about it. Emotionally, the best thing you can hope for is three points tomorrow. I’m used to this situation. I’ve celebrated my birthdays between semifinals and quarterfinals my whole life, and then you have the bonus of winning in those moments,” Kompany said.
As it turns out, Kompany’s players planned a mini-surprise party for him prior to Friday’s training session per Sky Germany’s Kerry Hau:
At FC Bayern, a small surprise party for Vincent Kompany is taking place before today’s training session. The players sang a birthday song to the coach in the team canteen for his 40th birthday. @SkySportDE
Later, the club would surprise the coach as well:
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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