How will Kompany deal with the thin squad?
Without the services of Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies, Hiroki Ito, and Aleksandar Pavlovic, failure to win on Saturday wouldn’t have been realistically out of the equation.
With that being the case, Vincent Kompany and his troops can be proud of their victory under the circumstances. Bayern’s squad is currently way too thin. Seeing Konrad Laimer and Serge Gnabry being replaced late in the second half because of injury only compounds the situation.
Whilst Laimer’s replacement-Sacha Boey performed disappointingly, he was the natural replacement. However, it was even more disappointing to see Gnabry, who was playing on the right wing, being replaced by Raphael Guerreiro instead of the youngster Lennart Karl.
Karl had performed well in all three preseason games against quality opposition. With the team currently short of options at both left back and right wing, seeing Guerreiro (a natural left-back) get the nod ahead of the 17-year-old Karl (a natural inverted right winger) was somewhat perplexing. With that decision, fans can only wonder if Kompany will show the necessary faith in any of Bayern’s teenagers throughout the season.