Our first real pre-season friendly, and the opening tie of the International Champions Cup, saw us beat Bayern Munich 2-1. Eddie Nketiah got the winner late on after Lewandowski cancelled out our opener via an own goal.
Bernd Leno - 8
Assured 45 minutes from our #1, including a couple of good saves.
Emiliano Martinez - 6
Made a good save to deny Gnabry, but was less assured from crosses.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles - 7
Continues at right back, and played the full 90 - highlighting the lack of alternatives. Did well supporting the attack and well enough in defence.
Shkodran Mustafi - 5
Shaky 81 minutes for Mustafi. Lost Lewa and the ball for the goal and had a lot of nervous moments.
Sokratis - 7
Played the full 90 and was as full blooded as one would expect from him.
Calum Chambers - N/A
Only came on for the last 10, but still played a big part in the winner.
Nacho Monreal - 6
Got the first half, and was dependable enough.
Sead Kolasinac - 5
Created a couple of good chances in his 2nd half run out, but Serge Gnabry destroyed him. Pretty much what you expect from him.
Granit Xhaka (c) - 7
A couple of misplaced passes but generally ran midfield.
Joe Willock - 8
Put in a strong claim for a chance in the first team, playing in a deeper than usual role.
Robbie Burton - 6
Came on for Willock in the 64th minute and didn't do badly at all.
Henrik Mkhitaryan - 5
Rusty and struggled to get involved in the game. Wasted a lot of possession in good positions.
Reiss Nelson - 6
Got a 36 minute run out and will be disappointed he didn't take a chance created for him by Auba.
Mesut Ozil - 7
Part of a fluid front 3 that created a lot of chances. Look liked he enjoyed himself.
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang - 8
Troubled both Bayern full backs as he strayed from his central role. Had chances to score as well, but got reward by creating the own goal.
Alexandre Lacazette - 7
Got into a battle with the Bayern CBs, but struggled to get any real chance.
Tyreece John-Jules, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah -
The 3 replaced Ozil, PEA and Laca with 10 minutes to go and combined to create the winner.
JJ will be disappointed, however, not to have scored a third with a bad miss. Nketiah also had an earlier chance to score, but the combination for the winner will make up for it for both.
Fiorentina next, on Saturday night (a more welcoming 11pm kick off time).
Ratings vs Bayern
posted on 18/7/19
Nice play from John-Jules to help create the winner. Seems the kids did well from what I've read here, and elsewhere.
It's not difficult to see where the squad needs to be strengthened though. Hopefully we'll see progress with the deal for Tierney, not to mention more about this Senegalese CB we've been linked to.
Starting to hope we can get Mkhitaryan out the door, even if just on a loan deal.
posted on 18/7/19
Haven't watched the whole game to be fair but what I have seen from Ainsley Maitland-Niles remind me that we need a RB more than a LB. He got roasted by Coman and our RB situation was one reason we lost the EL final.
posted on 18/7/19
Not sure if any of the CMs will join the tour (Guendouzi and Torreira finished their summer tournaments a while ago), but WIllock should get a lot of game time this summer. Hopefully AMN will get some time in midfield as well.
posted on 18/7/19
Seems a bit of a battle between Nketiah and TJJ as well now. Interesting to see if Nketiah is given a loan and TJJ steps up.
posted on 18/7/19
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 10 minutes ago
Not sure if any of the CMs will join the tour (Guendouzi and Torreira finished their summer tournaments a while ago), but WIllock should get a lot of game time this summer. Hopefully AMN will get some time in midfield as well.
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Also my hope that AMN gets playing time where he belongs. That isnt RB.
posted on 18/7/19
Are there any channels that are showing these games?