'Absolutely not': Burnley boss Vincent Kompany discusses the art of defending at the top level

A winner of 15 honours during his playing career, the Burnley boss is more qualified than most to speak of the changes and evolutions in the game, especially when it comes to keeping the ball out of the net.

That’s something the Clarets have struggled with this season, shipping 63 goals in 29 games – a record only worsened by bottom side Sheffield United.

But Kompany insists the same defensive traits remain in tact, it’s just the game itself that has changed.

When asked if the true art of defending has been lost, Kompany said: “Absolutely not. There’s not a lack of desire. In fact, defending now is harder because you’re defending bigger spaces. More often than not you’re exposed to these high quality strikers.

“Coaches in general, if everyone does it, it means there’s a reason why they’re doing it. They probably do it because the real zonal, deep defending tactic, has for many coaches not given them what they wanted.

“It goes in trends though, it might change again in a few years. But any team we play against, it’s full on. It’s everyone and that’s what makes this league so good.

“You have to remember my mindset, I’m not philosophical in that aspect. I’m just witnessing it and stating what I see. Maybe you see the same thing.”

Stepping back into the Premier League, Burnley lacked top flight experience in their backline.

While plenty of work has been done on the training field to get the players up to speed, Kompany knows there’s only one way to get true experience.

“A lot of the learning happens as you play,” he added. “We’ll give them the information, we will have sessions, drills and meetings, but that’s pretty normal I think in this day and age.

“We do all that of course, but the biggest thing is that you learn on the job. You learn when you face top strikers. That’s how you do it.

“I say it’s a striker’s league, but in my book it’s not that defenders are any worse. You used to have to run 9 or 9.5km.

“I remember I used to play with Richard Dunne, I had a look at the stats and he was a top, top defender. But he was running 9.5km per game and that was enough to be a top defender. Now, defenders have to run 12km and they’re chasing strikers, they have 300/400m sprints.

“If you have a 50m sprint you’d need three days recovery back in the day! So it’s just changed.

“I’m just a neutral observing and witnessing, that’s why things are adapting, that’s why things are evolving.”

When asked what he meant by labelling the Premier League a ‘striker’s league’, Kompany said: “I’m not seeing a lot of defenders handling their opponents at the moment.

“It doesn’t matter who you play, if you watch the Tottenham strikers the amount of times they get in, if you watch every team…

“I think it’s good for football but there’s more runs in behind, so it’s also a little bit more difficult to just sit back and defend because teams tactically understand how to create overloads and how to pin you in.”