FC Bayern will face Viking Stavanger on Tuesday and is making significant changes to its lineup. Vincent Kompany explained why that is.
Jonas Urbig, Konrad Laimer, Minjae Kim, Nathaniel Brown, Tom Bischof, and Lennart Karl are all moving into the starting lineup against the Norwegians from Stavanger.
Rotating the lineup for the second away game in such quick succession makes perfect sense, especially since the team faces RB Leipzig again in the Bundesliga this weekend.
Kompany discusses Bayern’s rotation against Stavanger
On Amazon Prime Video, Bayern coach Kompany explained why he made these rotations.
“It feels like we just played. This is our second away game in a row. We waited until right before the last game to see who was available. Manuel isn’t available, neither is Pavlovic—they weren’t ready for this game. That’s why it made sense to make these decisions. We also took energy levels into account,” said the Belgian.
Bayern will face an opponent in Norway that they’ve never played before. That’s why preparation wasn’t quite as easy, as Kompany confirmed: “It’s a less familiar opponent, but we’ve done our homework and analysis. The opponent is interesting; it’s a tough away game, but it could turn out to be a good match.“
The match will be played on artificial turf, which was a particular point of concern leading up to the game. Bayern held their final training session in Norway specifically to familiarize themselves with the unfamiliar surface. “I think that any ball played flat on the ground moves very quickly here. That’s not a bad thing for us. The ball takes a different path when it hits the ground. But we want to play our style of soccer, and that’s what counts. It’s not that much different from usual,” explained the Bayern coach.
