Honesty the best policy for Kompany at Bayern

Vincent Kompany wants open and honest communication in his dealings with players at Bayern Munich.

Kompany, who will take charge of his first Bundesliga game when Bayern take on Wolfsburg on Sunday, succeeded Thomas Tuchel after a disappointing third-place finish last season.

The former Burnley boss has already been praised by several squad members, including experienced goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, for his communication skills.

“To state your opinion clearly doesn’t mean that you say it in a personal way,” Kompany told reporters.

“I think it’s important to adapt how you communicate to the player that you’re facing; everyone’s different.

“You have different generations, different coaches, different ages, everything comes into play but in the end I think players appreciate if they get the message that you have in mind.”

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Leon Goretzka is one player who has been told that he faces a lot of competition in midfield this season, but he seems determined to stick around and fight for his place, and Kompany said such directness must be the club’s policy.

“We as a club have the role to be honest with the players because then we’re going to earn respect, even though sometimes it might not be positive news,” Kompany said.

“All I can say is that I haven’t had one single player who was not showing complete intensity and they were all trying to really reach the maximum and Leon was one of those players.”

One player who has left the club is Matthijs de Ligt, who joined Manchester United, and Kompany was quick to deny media reports that he had told the player that he was his number one defender.

“I didn’t say that because that would be completely stupid for me to say something like this,” he said.

“It also wouldn’t fit into what we are planning as a club with the squad, to have two players for every position and to have competition for places.”