Vincent Kompany has had far from an entirely fit squad for Bayern Munich at the FIFA Club World Cup due to the amount of injuries there currently are. In the defensive area of the pitch in particular, depth is rather thin as far as senior players are concerned. Alphonso Davies, Hiroki Ito, and Kim Min-jae are all currently out injured for the German Rekordmeister and Dayot Upamecano only just returned from a relatively lengthy injury layover that saw him miss a handful of matches toward the end of last season.
Going into the FIFA Club World Cup, before it was understood that Upamecano would be available on the bench against Auckland City and then likely start against Boca Juniors, there was the idea that Kompany would start with Leon Goretzka and Josip Stanišić at center back. However, that was also before Max Eberl agreed on a fee with Bayer Leverkusen to have new signing Jonathan Tah from the start of the tournament as opposed to from July 1st onward.
As a result and out of necessity, Stanišić has been deputized out of his natural position at left-back for most of the tournament; a task with which he has done quite well on the way to helping Bayern advance to the quarterfinals at the very least. Much like playing at right-back, the Croatian international recently explained that he actually does prefer left-back to center back in a way due to the more attacking freedom that he has there.
“When it comes to crossing, it’s easier with the right foot than with the left, but otherwise it’s not a big change. I also like playing left-back because I can be a bit more active there because as a center-back, you have more responsibility defensively and not as much to do going forward,” Stanišić told kicker ahead of the quarter final clash against Paris Saint-Germain in Atlanta, Georgia (via @iMiaSanMia).
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As far as the upcoming season is concerned, Kompany might need to continue playing Stanišić at left-back with both Davies and Ito still out injured. It remains to be seen what more business could be done in the summer transfer window, though, but Bayern’s main focus remains on securing a deal for VfB Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade and getting a winger to make up for not being able to get Florian Wirtz. They could still, however, do business in the defensive area of the pitch.