Kompany: Kane and Olise cannot play the full match every time; Schalke truly gave everything

After leading his team to a 0-0 away draw against Schalke 04 in the second round of the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany attended the press conference.

How do you evaluate today's match? What was the reason the game ended in a draw? Also, why did you not start Harry Kane and Michael Olise?

First of all, regarding Michael and Harry, this was a completely rational decision. These players returned from international duty and holidays very, very late. I think you also have players there, such as Edin Dzeko, who returned very late. You cannot always take it for granted that you can make them play 90 minutes, another 90 minutes, and another 90 minutes continuously. The previous German Cup match against Osnabrück had already consumed a lot of their energy.

I knew that if the situation was like this, I might face a difficult choice on Saturday against Schalke. But for us, the priority was that they could play the match against Osnabrück, because that was a cup game and they had to be available for it. Therefore, you cannot constantly impose a full workload on players who have just returned. So I think it was a very rational decision. However, from the 45th minute onward, bringing them on became possible, so Harry came on as a substitute afterward, and Michael came on slightly later.

As for how I evaluate this match? Yes, I think for other football games, this could have been a normal, typical Schalke-style match, but I still think it was a very good and passionate football game. It was full of emotions and fighting spirit. There were also many key moments defensively where defenders had to make special efforts to ensure a clean sheet. Sometimes it is good to see performances like this.

From our perspective, I think our counter-pressing was good, and our overall pressing was also acceptable, which was positive. We created one or two opportunities. Although I must admit that when we shot, we were always facing interference and pressure from the opponent, we still created chances. In the end, this is the kind of match you sometimes experience on a football pitch. Finally, I want to congratulate Schalke, because they truly gave everything on the pitch today, and that was very clear.

Mr. Kompany, I have a question regarding today's draw, especially considering the upcoming Champions League matches. How will you deal with this situation going forward? Today, perhaps not every forward pass was delivered accurately. Will you make some adjustments in training, or have you already fully understood how to handle this type of situation?

Yes, I hope our game does not rely only on chipped passes. No, as I said before, I will continue to remain completely objective. Ultimately, what we did well was that we gave the opponent almost no chances, and this was an away match. In these moments, Schalke's defense could also create situations that might completely change the course of the game. We needed patience, but from our perspective, one thing we could improve is this: when you face an opponent that is compact, defensively solid, well-organized, and extremely willing to run, the ball must move at a very high speed throughout the 90 minutes.

It is this continuous pressure that keeps the opponent's goal under pressure—whether through 10 passes, off-ball runs, the chipped passes you mentioned, second-ball recoveries, crosses, or set pieces, you must apply pressure to the defensive line for the entire 90 minutes until cracks appear. Today we did create some good chances, but perhaps throughout the match we only applied around 60% or 70% of the pressure we could have put on that defense. In this type of game, you cannot waste even a minute. Sometimes we waste several minutes for no reason because we slow down the tempo ourselves, and that should absolutely not happen.

So what can we learn from this? We must always keep the tempo high until space is created in the defensive line. If you miss one opportunity, then work to create the next one. I still have a positive and appreciative view of Schalke's performance, and I also have a positive view of our team's performance, because I know this was not a poorly played match. This is simply how it happened; this is football, and sometimes it is just like this.