Vincent Kompany moved to defend Manuel Neuer after the veteran goalkeeper came under heavy scrutiny following Bayern Munich’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, insisting criticism of his actions in north London was misplaced.
The performance prompted a harsh assessment from Michael Ballack on DAZN, with the former Bayern midfielder saying, “Manuel is making a wrong decision. If he goes to the ball, he must get it, he knows that himself. He decided to take the risk – and will be punished.” Ballack also questioned the keeper’s judgement on the opening goal from a corner, suggesting he again failed to assert himself decisively.
Neuer’s most glaring mistake came before Arsenal’s third goal, when he raced almost to the half-way line in an attempt to intercept a through ball but failed to make contact. Gabriel Martinelli, who touched it around the keeper, was left with an open net and finished calmly to send the Arsenal fans wild.
Ballack later described the incident as an example of Neuer playing as a sweeper, a choice which he said had “backfired” on Wednesday evening.
Kompany, however, rejected the suggestion that his goalkeeper erred. “Mistakes? What mistake?” the Bayern head coach said when asked directly about the incident. “I have a different opinion on that. What should you do as a goalkeeper? Either wait until he runs up to you in one-on-one? Or do you want to defend the space and try to help your colleagues playing against a fast player.”
He added: “Of course, you can make mistakes and he will make mistakes in the future. He has already made mistakes in his life. But of course he is an outstanding goalkeeper.“
Neuer was not the only Bayern player involved in a costly error in London. Dayot Upamecano surrendered possession with a misplaced pass in the build-up to Noni Madueke’s goal that put Arsenal 2-1 ahead. Then again, he probably shouldn’t have even been on the pitch after his foul on the same player when he was already on a yellow card from an ‘orange’ challenge in the first half. Kompany again refused to apportion blame. “You can’t ask anything from him, and if something goes wrong, we can’t say that you shouldn’t have done that. As now with the high pressing.“
In contrast to his firm defence of Neuer, the Belgian did acknowledge that lessons could be taken from the defeat. “We lost, you have to learn from this in order to improve. And I am sure that he will use this to improve, to learn from it,” Kompany said, adding that Upamecano would “listen carefully”.