Kompany and the battle for survival with Burnley
Kompany puffed her cheeks and narrowed her eyes. This is the reaction of the former Belgian midfielder when he saw his assistant Craig Bellamy say that the head coach "doesn't sleep" because he is constantly busy preparing for the next game or training session, in the upcoming documentary film. titled "Mission to Burnley" narrates the last 18 months at the club.
Of course, those are exaggerations from the assistant, but will Kompany have time to enjoy the success he has enjoyed at Turf Moor to date? "What I can say is that I also understand the importance of sleep," he replied.
It was a familiar serious response from someone who has always shown professionalism, both as a player and now as a manager. Sometimes Kompany makes people forget that he has just spent his fourth year as a coach, when he talks about his philosophy and the demands placed on his students with conviction and certainty.
But it was that confidence that convinced Kompany that joining Burnley 12 months ago was the right move in his career. At that time, the club nicknamed "The Clarets" had just been relegated to the Championship after six years of playing in the Premier League and had 10 years playing under veteran coach Sean Dyche.
Kompany took over a collective of players who were on the other side of the slope of their careers, and had to work with inexperienced club owners. To start over, the Belgian coach signed 16 players, five of which were on loan. After a slow start, Burnley gradually shed the familiar pragmatic style of the Dyche era. By early April, they were promoted seven rounds early - a new record in the Championship, crowned with 101 points, lost only three games and scored 87 goals - the best stats in the league.
Fans are excited by the achievement, but Kompany is aware Burnley faces a difficult task to survive in the Premier League. He emphasized that the players have to stay in shape throughout the season.
"To prepare for each season, the coach has to make sure that the whole team fully understands how you behave and function at different times," said Kompany. "I can tell the players what we're going to do if we win the first five games, or lose the five games. If we win the first five games, we're still not good enough. If the opposite happens, that's okay too. And we can do better."
The former Man City midfielder believes that any player can make mistakes, and it is important that the coach can help guide the player through, and then improve over time and accumulated experience. "What keeps people off track is emotions, panic, opinions, outside influences. What I'm trying to do is isolate the whole team from that distraction, and keep reminding that. What makes them better," Kompany continued.
In the summer of 2019, Kompany left Man City to return to his childhood club Anderlecht, working as a player and coach. Due to his failure in the coaching role, after only a few games of the first season, Kompany immediately handed over his position as a manager and only took on the role of defender and captain of Anderlecht. In the summer of 2020, he hung up his shoes, then became coach Anderlecht on a four-year contract, leading the team to the runner-up of the Belgian National Cup 2022.
Coming to Burnley in the summer of 2022 with limited management experience, Kompany only helped the club win one match in the opening five matches of the Championship - a 1-0 victory at Huddersfield Town in the first round. Therefore, many people doubt Kompany's ability to succeed at Turf Moor, and question whether the Belgian coach can change the character of Burnley.
Even so, Kompany's composure and confidence in the face of adversity is astounding. He quickly smashed these criticisms when he put Burnley back on a winning streak, and even exceeded the target by helping the team to advance to a record early promotion. Chairman Alan Pace admitted he did not expect Burnley to return to the Premier League after just one season and called this a "magic" season. Initially, he and Kompany outlined a two- to three-year plan to bring the club to promotion.
Kompany believes that as long as the players focus and improve, Burnley's upward momentum will not stop. "As long as the team improves, we'll win more games than at first. I said Burnley will get stronger as the season goes on, and I'm not exaggerating, but that's something very fitting. It's difficult for me to stay fit, to be consistent, with all the emotions and outside influences. For us, it's important to protect that environment and keep driving people to basic things and habits that they have to do to improve," coach Burnley continued.
One of the biggest challenges Burnley faces after returning to the Premier League is the psychological transition. Last season, they were overrated and won most of their Championship matches, and now Burnley must learn to get used to being underrated for most of the games and try to stay relegated.
But Kompany is also prepared for the challenge in the Premier League, by helping Burnley adapt to a variety of playing styles. He even enjoys how the team can play in an "ugly" way and still be effective in some games. According to Kompany, success does not necessarily come with being different, but simply knowing who you are, what to do to become better.
"Not only when we have the ball, we like pressing. I think last year Burnley was really impressive and good at that," he added. "Thanks to that, Burnley is ready for anything in the Premier League, when the whole team is ready to run, fight, but also be smart and creative when necessary. I think what you have to adapt is to improve. more efficient and faster".
This improvement was made by Kompany during the summer training period. He let Burnley join the team at the earliest of the Premier League teams, from June 5, just a few days after the Champions League final, and considers this pre-season as an invaluable opportunity for the players as well as the whole team. progressive collective.
"Pre-season is what you want as a coach," Kompany said. "That's when you work on the details, personalize the work because there's more time with the players than during the season, and it's the foundation to prepare them to be in good shape. best".
This is also an opportunity for Burnley to make necessary personnel changes, when seeing off some old people who are no longer suitable for the team and welcoming new people. Not as big of a disturbance as last summer, but Burnley also experienced an exciting summer with 9 rookies coming to replace 9 people leaving.
Burnley's battle for survival in the Premier League will start today. They played the early match of the first round, against Man City - the team that dominated the tournament with five crowns in the last six seasons and had just had a successful season with a treble of titles. Kompany himself is no stranger to opponents, because he has devoted the best 11 years of his career (2008-2019) to Man City, scoring 20 goals in 360 matches, with the club winning four Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups and two English Super Cups.
Kompany has no illusions about Burnley's position and says the team must fight a long and persistently with a "guerrilla" philosophy to survive against bigger clubs like Man City today.
"At Burnley, everyone is aware of the big picture, and that makes my job easier," said the 37-year-old coach. "Everyone understands the level of the club and what we strive to do. The team has to operate according to the financial condition of the club, not like Man City, Arsenal or Tottenham. We have to always be in mode. guerrilla and other activities to have a little advantage with the resources of the club."
Brighton or Brentford are considered a model for newly promoted teams to stay and assert their name in the English Premier League, with a different style of play and wise transfer work. See these as two sources of inspiration, but Kompany wants Burnley to continue to develop and go his own way.
"We just wanted to be ourselves, but what these clubs and Burnley have done well is to have clarity in everything," the former Belgium midfielder said. "They can do better than budget. If you rank teams based on budget, they've done a lot better than that. I think what's interesting these days is that for growth, we're not suddenly getting a pick. hundreds of millions of dollars in. So the way for us to grow naturally is to create value, and I think Burnley is on a path to creating real value, and that's very good for us. CLUB".
