Kompany needs to change his ways in the Premier League or he will be in trouble

HAVE football supporters and the media become so obsessed when it comes to teams playing out from the back, that we are blinded when it comes to truly assessing a team?

Does it cloud our judgement of a manager just because he insists that his team play football ‘the right way’, even if it causes teams to lose games?

Supporters will almost excuse their team’s negative results as long as they believe their side is trying to pass out from the back.

However, that attitude does change with fans and owners when they start to realise that their team isn’t getting results playing the way they do and that something has got to change.

That change is usually a switch in manager because nowadays managers are so stubborn in their beliefs that they are unwilling to alter their philosophy in the way their team should play football even if that means losing their jobs.

One manager who I believe is one of those whose reputation precedes them is Vincent Kompany. 

The Burnley manager’s stock is very high for someone who has relatively done very little in the game in comparison to other Premier League managers. 

Kompany did very well to get Burnley promoted to the Premier League in his maiden season with the club, so much so that he was linked with several jobs during the summer, before he was handed a new five-year contract with Burnley. 

However managing in the Championship is a lot different to managing in the Premier League, just ask Neil Warnock who is highly regarded as one of the best managers to have worked in the second-tier of English football, yet was not able to cut it as a manager in the Premier League.

Burnley’s return to the Premier League has seen the club lose their first three games in which they have conceded 11 goals and scored just three. 

Yet Kompany’s capabilities as a Premier League manager have not been questioned perhaps because his team play attractive football.

Yes, Burnley have had a difficult start with games against Manchester City, Aston Villa and Spurs, but defeats against those sides haven’t been by the odd goal. 

Burnley fans should be worried about the number of goals they are leaking. 

One of the main reasons that is happening is because Kompany is asking his team to be players to play high and wide in order for them to press high and try to play out from the back. 

While they could get away with playing in this manner in the Championship, unfortunately they cannot in the Premier League. 

They are up against far superior players and are getting punished for every mistake they make.

Of course, the Burnley players are capable of playing out from the back, any player that is playing in the Premier League has the ability to pass and control a ball, and move off it. 

So Kompany isn’t instructing his players to do something they are incapable of doing. 

The problem is that in the Premier League, opposition players are quicker in their press and have the sharpness in their mind to see as a pass immediately to find a killer pass when they do overturn possession. 

Whereas in the Championship, players will not be pressed in possession as aggressively and opposition players don’t have the speed in their mind to punish a mistake.

It irritates me seeing Kompany be given a ‘free pass’ so far this season despite Burnley spending over €100m over the summer because they try to pass out from the back. 

Whereas someone like Sean Dyche has faced huge scrutiny, despite only spending €37 million over the summer transfer window. 

Dyche is seen as a manager who wants to win at all costs. 

He supposedly isn’t concerned how his team wins just once he does. Maybe he isn’t, but I’d much prefer to have a manager whose priority is winning games rather than a manager whose primary focus is the style of football his team plays. 

I would assume that Everton’s and Burnley’s aim at the beginning of the season was to avoid relegation. 

If I had to pick either Dyche or Kompany to be successful with that, it would be the former.

I am in favour of teams trying to play an attractive style of football, but what I don’t agree with is managers being given more allowance than others for doing so. 

Managers should be judged on results not the style of football their side plays.