KOMPANY ON PRESSURE, TACTICS & PUSHING FOR RESULTS

Clarets manager discusses developing as a coach in the Premier League

It’s almost five years since Vincent Kompany became a manager.

With a stellar playing career behind him and now facing the challenges of managing in the Premier League, the Clarets boss has been reflecting on how he views the game as a coach as opposed to a player, the difficulties of competing in the top flight and how his coaching style has changed from last season’s Championship-winning campaign.

Nearing five years into his managerial career, what’s the one thing that’s changed the way the Belgian looks at the game as a player compared to as a manager?

“In the same way, it feels like it was both yesterday and fifteen years ago, it’s a difficult thing to explain because you experience so much in such a short period of time. But at the same time, it feels like it’s not long ago.

“The biggest thing is the way I look at my managers that I had in the past, that’s what’s changed the most. You know, as a player you’re always expecting everything to be perfect, you’re always expecting that whoever’s in charge gets every answer, gets everything right. But when you’re a manager what you realise is that before you are right, there’s a long process before that of making mistakes, still the same as when you were a player. Making mistakes, the analysis of everything, and then gradually improving. So, that’s also an exciting part of the job that I like but it’s something that probably when you’re a player you think of it more as black or white. You either know everything or you don’t know anything, but that’s not the case.”

The challenge of managing a squad flying high as was the case last year when the Clarets stormed the Championship, to a different challenge this campaign competing in the Premier League – how different would he say his coaching style has become?

“I would say the challenge was definitely very different, but I think that the part of improving is also to have consistency. Consistency in your approach, consistency in your work, your work rate and your effort and I think that’s always there. Yes, the challenge is different but the consistency in improving and the consistency in trying to find the solutions and right answers is exactly the same as last season. The difference is, we’re playing against a different level, different opposition.”

Both winning and losing games bring about pressure but despite differing situations this season and last, Kompany is well used to dealing with pressure and what comes with the role.

“Pressure is pressure. I’m fine with it, I’ve never experienced football without pressure ever in my life.

“So, whether it’s in this case the pressure to stay up or in another case the pressure to win every game. My biggest approach to this is just to focus on the things you can control. That’s the most important. All the other aspects, there’s more chance that it has a negative effect on the work you do than it has a positive effect – in both scenarios, whether you are at the bottom or at the top.”

And with pressure comes emotions, how does he balance the two?

“In the moment in the game you can get angry, happy, you have passion, emotions but after the game, no, no chance. I became a manager not because I thought that I was going to win every single game – the only guy that wins every trophy is Pep. Everybody else, we suffer.

“I became a manager because I wanted to embrace all of it, good times, bad times. Ok now is a difficult time but I’m still getting a lot of value out of it, I work with a good team, and fantastic staff, we are a team and that for me is always the right environment to work in and the rest, things happen with a lot of hard work and that’s what we do.”

At 37, Kompany is the youngest manager in the Premier League and the Clarets have the second youngest squad in the top-tier.

“For me, it’s not so much an issue of young or old. This league nowadays you have to have the right profile, you can have as much experience that you want, if you can’t run fast, if you’re not strong, if you’re not able to run all the time – and I’m not saying a lot, I’m saying all the time. You have zero chance in this league. Therefore, for us then it’s about what we can afford, and we can afford players from that range, that have maybe not so much experience but have really, really good potential. We have an exciting team but it’s a strategic decision for us to go for players that can grow with us, but they also give you a lot in return because every game I think we’ve been not only improving but we’ve been exciting in many ways. For us now, it’s to find that final push for results, that’s of course a big part of what you have to do in this league.”