FC Bayern will play in the derby in Augsburg on Saturday. And coach Vincent Kompany prefers to warn the opponent.
Vincent Kompany still has to get through the weekend and an agonizingly long Monday, then he might be able to talk exclusively about soccer again before FC Bayern’s next competitive game and no longer about transfers that may or may not happen.
The coach always emphasizes that he is there for the line-up and not for everything else that goes with it, but of course he is also keen to have a team that is as healthy and functional as possible, not only in August, but also in November and January.
Just how little can go wrong was revealed on Wednesday by a third-division team in the DFB Cup. Because Luis Diaz and Co. missed numerous scoring opportunities in Wiesbaden and once again conceded cheap goals, Munich suddenly faced the threat of embarrassment.
And Kompany felt compelled to do something about it on the sidelines, not by giving more young players like Jonah Kusi-Asare a bit of playing time, but by substituting the rest of the starting eleven in order to somehow still win. Which worked, thanks to Harry Kane.
On Saturday, in the first away league game of the season, Konrad Laimer, Josip Stanisic, and Manuel Neuer will start again to spoil Sandro Wagner’s home debut as Augsburg coach. Kompany finds such a “newcomer to the Bundesliga” “always fascinating,” as he himself was one a year ago. The Bayern coach is therefore excited about his counterpart’s “new ideas” and “new challenges for us as a coaching team, and also for us as a team.”
He is studying FCA with “great interest” ahead of the mini-derby, and another video session with the team is scheduled for Friday. Kompany does not know Wagner personally, but he knows “of course what he has done in the past at Unterhaching and also with the national team.” And “ultimately, tomorrow is about the players.”
And these players should, ideally, have less trouble than they did on Wednesday, although Kompany knows that every opponent is perhaps two percent more motivated when playing against his team. “I always assume that beating Bayern is like winning a title. We noticed last season that this is very valuable for every club.”
The Belgian is not worried, of course. “What shouldn’t be underestimated is how hungry we are and how much we want this game.” In terms of quality, Bayern are superior to every team in the Bundesliga anyway, so what’s important for the coach every time is the basics: the willingness to fight and run, the hard work. And that his players have no problem pushing themselves beyond the pain threshold.
