Renato Sanches is having an absolute mare so far.
Probably his best performance in the Bayern dress.
in the first half, he looked like a pub player who won an appearance with Bayern in a crossword competition. Then he only just turned 19 - still if i was in charge of hiring players with an emphasis on young affordable talent (35 Mio
), i'd look for skills like vision, spatial awareness, decision making, speed of doing so - not so much physique, as that can be trained. Seems to me with him, t'was the other way around. Still not convinced he'll develop into a way-above-average kind of player, though both
@Dans and my (completely clueless in all things football) brother-in-law agree in disagreeing with me
Improved in half 2, like the rest of the team.
Funny game, couldn't tell whether Atleti couldn't be arsed to show up or wasn't capable off. Also the atmosphere was as if the main event of the evening was still going to come up - it *was* cold, but not *that* cold. We were the ones showing up with squad 1b, not them... still we muffled all their feeble counterattack attempts (after the two early chances) so seemingly effortlessly and still managed to look vulnerable at times - the most apparent item we salvaged from the Pep era, it seems
.
Also, despite using Lewa, Robben and Costa, we lack penetration power in the final third so much it isn't even funny. Seems the theme of the season unless we play Rib/Rob/Lewa/Müller all together like last Friday, thus dropping our pants. Worrysome thought. (especially at -3° C)
Still, considering the quality of Atletico, possibly the best performance all season on our side, especially early 2nd half.
Highlight of the match: definitely Neuer leaving his box by a good 20ft to receive a back-pass under pressure and, after returning it to a field player, not returning to his box as any sane person would, but moving even further forward, offering himself for the return pass which he gladly received and confidentially passed on to another friendly
- that Schalker is a Schalker and we'll never forget this, but he has balls the size of a minor supernova and i can't help loving him for it.
