Manchester City news: “It’s not exactly about tactics” – Kompany reveals biggest lesson from Guardiola

Vincent Kompany’s profitable spell at Manchester Metropolis beneath Pep Guardiola continues to instantly affect his growth as a supervisor.

Now accountable for Bayern Munich, the Belgian steadily revisits classes from that interval to elucidate the ideas he tries to implement together with his crew – and on Wednesday, he as soon as once more highlighted that the best legacy he obtained from the Spanish coach goes past formations or actions on the pitch.

When discussing what he absorbed through the years he captained Guardiola’s Metropolis, Kompany emphasised the constructing of a relentless aggressive mentality, based mostly on absolutely the worth of each match.

For him, the central educating was not in particular tactical particulars, however within the demand to method each fixture with the identical stage of focus and ambition, whatever the opponent or the context of the calendar.

“It is about mentality”

“It isn’t precisely about techniques. It is about mentality, about all the time desirous to win the whole lot, about treating each recreation as an necessary recreation, with out distinction between a recreation towards your foremost rival and a recreation towards a second division crew. Having that mentality of all the time being current,” he mentioned throughout a Bayern youth membership members’ occasion.

The admiration for his former boss, nevertheless, doesn’t translate into an try to actually reproduce strategies or concepts. Kompany is eager to level out that his journey on the touchline is constructed from numerous references, combining influences amassed all through his profession together with his personal selections of management and taking part in type.

When instantly addressing how he views his personal managerial mannequin, the previous centre-back as soon as once more positioned Guardiola as his foremost inspiration, however inside a broader repertoire of learnings.

“The perfect supervisor I ever had was, definitely, Pep Guardiola. He expanded my understanding of soccer. I’m not making an attempt to do issues the identical method as Pep. Pep is totally different, he was the very best. I absorbed sure issues from each supervisor I labored with. Mancini and Huub Stevens had been additionally good examples. You take in one thing from every supervisor to put in writing your individual story,” he concluded.

Kompany’s managerial journey

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Vincent Kompany’s transition to a managerial profession started nearly organically at Anderlecht, the membership the place he ended his taking part in days. In 2019, he initially took on a hybrid position as player-manager, in a undertaking that sought sporting rebuilding and a taking part in identification.

The expertise, nevertheless, rapidly revealed the difficulties of mixing roles, and Kompany started to dedicate himself completely to teaching, prioritising the implementation of a mannequin based mostly on possession, quick build-up and dominance with the ball.

There have been no title wins, but the interval accountable for the Belgian aspect consolidated the previous centre-back’s picture as a supervisor with clear concepts and powerful convictions, even in hostile contexts.

The breakthrough got here in England, when he took cost of Burnley in 2022, shortly after their relegation to the Championship. In a state of affairs of deep squad overhaul, the Belgian promoted a radical change of favor in comparison with the membership’s conventional direct soccer, adopting ideas related to positional play.

The influence was fast: Burnley dominated the second tier, gained the title by a big margin and secured an early return to the Premier League, with widespread recognition for his or her offensive and organised soccer.

The expertise within the English high flight, nevertheless, uncovered the bounds of the undertaking within the quick time period. With a squad nonetheless maturing and adapting to the upper stage, Burnley struggled competitively and had been relegated once more in 2023-24.

Regardless of the result, the work maintained status within the European marketplace for its coherence of concepts and capability for collective growth – credentials that led Kompany to take cost of Bayern Munich, the place he started to face the best problem and largest stage of his nonetheless younger managerial profession. He has already gained two titles accountable for the Bavarian giants: the 2024-25 Bundesliga and the 2025 German Tremendous Cup.