Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany can see that his team is a little tired and banged up, but that does not mean he is planning to rest his most important players — especially because Kompany views PSV Eindhoven as bigtime competition.
“Winning 6-2 against Napoli and 4-1 against Liverpool – those are unique results. You can see that the team believes in itself. They are strong going forward, very quick on the counter-attack. They also have players who score goals. They lost 1-3 against Saint-Gilloise,
but we’re Bayern, we’re more in line with Liverpool and Napoli — so we have to be careful tomorrow,” said Kompany (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “I never talk about losing when we still have a game to play. That’s not my mentality. Tomorrow is all about winning. It will be difficult, and as always in football, you can win or lose. It’s about winning our seventh game out of eight and finishing second. It will be a great game tomorrow.
“I would compare PSV and Bayern, there are many similarities: how we attack, the roles of the strikers, the number 10s, the full-backs, the midfield, the build-up play… PSV play high pressing and are fully oriented towards the opponents, which makes the team very compact.
“We’re in the position of having almost our entire squad available. Only a few still need to integrate after their return. We know PSV’s qualities. We have confidence in our squad. We believe in those who will start tomorrow.”
As always, Kompany is keeping his personnel plans close to the vest, but did comment on a few players.
“When we have so many games, I don’t decide who plays the day before. I’ll think about it tomorrow after I get up. I have 100% respect for PSV; I know it will be difficult. It’s not just about (potentially resting) Harry (Kane). The quality of the pressing also depends on energy – that was our problem against Augsburg. I have to consider whether it’s a question of quality or also one of energy – I’ll decide that tomorrow. I want to win, there’s no doubt about that,” said Kompany. “Sacha (Boey) hasn’t trained that much yet, but he’s finally recovered from this illness. He showed good signs in training today, he can help us for a few minutes. He won’t start yet, but it’s fortunate that he’s fit again. This comes at the right time for us.
“We all agree that (Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies) are two good players. Unfortunately, there’s no ‘soft integration’ at this stage of the season; it’s a hard integration. Playing time is based on performance, that’s our piece of the puzzle. We’re close to having a complete squad at the most important time of the season. The important thing is that we have all our best players in February and March. Stani (Josip Stanišić) and (Konrad) Laimer will also be back by then.”
As for Wednesday, it sure seems like Kompany is planning on using his top, available players to ward off a hungry PSV Eindhoven squad.
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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