Jürgen Klopp and Vincent Kompany engaged in an in-depth discussion about their coaching philosophies. During the conversation, the Bayern coach also got a sense of the new national team coach’s sense of humor.
Jürgen Klopp is using his first few weeks as national team coach to engage in in-depth discussions with the coaches of his national team players. During his visit to Säbener Straße, the 59-year-old therefore met at length with Bayern coach Vincent Kompany.
The discussion focused primarily on their differing tactical approaches. As with his previous stints in Mainz, Dortmund, and Liverpool, Klopp’s style of play is based on high intensity and aggressive counter-pressing. Defensively, the new national team coach prefers zone marking. At FC Bayern, however, Kompany relies more heavily on man-to-man marking.
From the Belgian’s perspective, however, the differences aren’t quite that significant. According to Sport BILD, Kompany took Klopp into his coaching office on the first floor of Säbener Straße and explained his ideas to him using a whiteboard. He described his approach as more of a “hybrid man-to-man defense.”
The two coaches then went through the individual positions. When it came to Nathaniel Brown, Klopp couldn’t resist a little dig.
Kompany and Klopp discussed Brown’s role
When Kompany got to the 23-year-old German national team player, Klopp joked: “Now we finally have a German left back again—and then you put him at the ten.”
The background to this is Brown’s unusual role at FC Bayern. Although the new signing is actually at home on the left side of the defense, Kompany also deployed him in the central attacking position due to the team’s personnel situation.
According to Sport BILD, the Bayern coach took Klopp’s remark in stride. At the same time, Kompany promised his fellow coach that he would once again deploy Brown on his usual left side in the future.