Ahead of Bayern Munich’s trip to Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga this weekend, Vincent Kompany spoke about a tough away fixture, Jamal Musiala, the transfer window, and more.
Bayern cruised to victory on the opening day of the Bundesliga last weekend when they dismantled VfB Stuttgart 5-1 in front of a packed Alianz Arena. Their hosts this week played their first top-flight match since 2023 and lost 3-0 away at FC Augsburg.
For Schalke, their first home game of the season can’t be big enough against the Rekordmeister. For Kompany, he understands the importance of the fixture and the attitude Bayern will have to take going to Veltins-Arena.
“I played there with Man City and HSV. It’s a stadium that we and I know well. The club also has support in Belgium. We’re the favourites but can’t just believe it. It always starts from zero. You don’t automatically take good performances against Osnabrück and Stuttgart with you. They can’t be hungrier than us. They’ll be hugely excited after three years away.”
Jamal Musiala is yet to feature for Bayern this season, having been rested against Stuttgart and Osnabrück in the DFB Pokal earlier this week.
The attacking-midfielder collapse twice during pre-season matches recently after it was revealed to the wider public that the 23-year-old suffers from a neurological condition.
Musiala and the club have been aware of the youngster’s medical condition for some time and have stated that he is still safe to play football.
Kompany gave the media an update:
“He’s had a good and full week of training. He’s doing well. We’ve already stated how we’ll handle him. Jamal is in a good spell. We’ve been dealing with the situation for longer than the public know. We’ll see in training today and will then make a decision that’s the best for Jamal and the team.”
Bringing the focus back to the game against Schalke, Kompany was quick to dismiss S04 as your stereotypical promoted side and believes they should be safe this season:
“I think the step up from the second division to the first in Germany is more doable than in England, where the differences are much greater, especially financially. When you look at Schalke, they’re not like a promoted club. They look very stable. It was tough for them in Augsburg, but they had a good pre-season. I don’t think they’ll have many problems this season. We’re playing against a Bundesliga club, which is always difficult.”
In the build-up to transfer deadline day earlier in the week, rumours were circulating that Bayern wished to sign a third high-profile player before the window shut.
When asked about this, Kompany couldn’t hold back the laughter and explained:
“That’s come from nowhere. What we discuss internally stays internal. I’m completely surprised that something like that is going around. I never once woke up with that thought. I wonder how it came about. Lots of things quickly become a subject without being any truth behind it.”
Bayern Munich play Schalke in Saturday’s Topspiel this weekend in front of a sell-out 62,000 crowd. GGFN will be on hand to bring you the latest from the game as well as everything else happening around Germany on matchday two in the Bundesliga.
GGFN | Jamie Allen
