No “Mini-Vinnies” at Bayern Munich: Aaron Danks chooses a curious savannah analogy

Coach Vincent Kompany remains on sick leave – and his assistant Aaron Danks has suddenly found himself permanently in the spotlight at Bayern Munich.

The Englishman has licence to do things his way. Ahead of the German football classic against Borussia Dortmund (Saturday, 6.30pm/Sky), he took an unusual detour into the animal kingdom.

For Danks, that freedom came from Vince: "Vince told us very clearly that he did not want his assistant coaches to be mini-Vinnies, with everyone constantly doing exactly the same thing," Danks said, adding: "So we are all different, but we complement one another. The analogy I use for the coaching staff is the zebra and the ostrich".

Come again? "The zebra and the ostrich," Danks explained, "live together on the savannah and have a mutually beneficial relationship: the zebra has really good hearing and a very good sense of smell, but its eyesight is not so great. So if it smells or hears something, it runs off – and the ostrich follows." The partnership worked both ways: "The ostrich has very large eyes and incredibly good eyesight. So if it sees something and starts running, the zebra follows."

For the coaching staff, Danks drew this lesson: "We have to be zebras and ostriches, and we cannot all have the same opinion, we cannot all see things in the same way. We have to look at things a little differently." Each session put those differences to work: "In every session, one of us works on attacking play, another on defence, one with the midfielders, one with the strikers, whatever is needed at the time. That gives us different perspectives."

Together, those different perspectives led to shared solutions, Danks said. Vince had his part to play: "Vince fits into all this with his leadership style and his experience as a former professional, and gives us valuable perspectives."