At the same time, he was keen to defend his former mentor, Pep Guardiola. For years, the Manchester City manager has faced the unflattering criticism that he over-analyses big and important matches and tries to catch the opposition off guard with unorthodox tactics and line-ups – a strategy that, on balance, has often backfired.
The same pattern surfaced during his Bayern Munich tenure. In the 2014 Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, he fielded a daring 4-2-3-1 with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos as a double-six, reportedly at the request of senior players. Instead of overturning the 1-0 first-leg defeat, the Bavarians were brutally exposed on the break and lost 4-0. “The biggest mistake I’ve ever made as a manager,” the Catalan railed afterwards.
Two years later, in the first leg of the semi-final against Atlético Madrid, he surprisingly left out Thomas Müller and Franck Ribéry, preferring Juan Bernat; Bayern lost 0-1 and were ultimately eliminated once again.
“I played under Pep. It’s not true that he changes everything in big matches. That’s just media nonsense. When you lose, you have to explain yourself. When you win, you’re right,” Kompany said of his Catalan mentor.
