Manchester City great Kompany played three seasons under Pep Guardiola towards the end of his career. And one can really see a lot of Guardiola in the way the former centre-back and his assistants approach ball possession and how they set up attacking plays. Positional play and the rotation within the formation are key to letting the ball circulate almost effortlessly.
Last season, Kompany already attempted to introduce positional patterns, in that his players were asked to occupy certain zones or lanes, but this year, players rotate from zone to zone more frequently, which makes it harder for defences to cover without leaving any gaps towards and into the penalty area.
Now, this is not completely unheard of when it comes to Bayern’s offensive approach. Guardiola himself implemented similar patterns after his arrival in 2013, but the Catalan failed to lead them to the Champions League final despite making real progress. During Guardiola’s three-year spell he brought in midfielder Joshua Kimmich, one of the most promising German players at the time.
Kimmich is still with Bayern and might have an explanation as to why the team look even more fearsome than back then.
“When I joined 10 years ago, we were equipped with incredible individual quality. We had 23, 24, 25 world-class players,” he said on Saturday.
“But when I now see how we as a team function and are happy together and for one another, when I see how we bring these principles to the field, how one runs for the other, then this is very special. That has not been the case so often. It was different 10 years ago. Then, we had more egoism within the team.”
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