Four observations from Bayern’s 3-2 preseason loss to Manchester City

Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery were tremendous

No, the duo was not perfect, but Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery brought all of the energy and passion you would hope to see out of them in a Bundesliga match; except this was only an International Champions Cup tour fixture. We are taking that as a very positive sign for the veteran wingers. Frankly, Ribery has been excellent thus far in the preseason and Robben put forth his best individual effort of the tour for Bayern Munich against Manchester City. It is easy - and popular! - to knock the veteran twosome when things go wrong, but at least for tonight, they carried the squad on their respective backs.

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Sven Ulreich is giving Bayern reason to worry

Champions League howler aside, Sven Ulreich had a pretty stellar season filling in for Manuel Neuer in 2017-2018. During the International Champions Cup tour, however, Ulreich displayed enough poor-decision making and shoddy execution to create some doubt. Aside from the garbage time minutes that went to Ron-Torben Hoffmann against Juventus, Niko Kovač essentially dedicated this trip to seeing what he had in Ulreich. Unfortunately, the back-up to Neuer did not do much to instill any confidence in his new coach. Ulreich, again, had some shaky moments against Manchester City. It was not awful, but probably bad enough to make Kovač stir a bit. It will be interesting to see just how much Kovač uses Ulreich if Neuer stays healthy this season.

Sandro Wagner has to be better...

The backup striker had his opportunities, but was unable to convert. With Robert Lewandowski as the team’s primary option, Wagner may not have his number called often this season, but he’ll have to be far more clinical under duress than he was tonight. Perhaps being a little more sturdy and physical would yield better results for Wagner on the pitch as he, again, appeared to go down too easily a few times tonight.

...and so does Kingsley Coman

Kingsley Coman is one of the players who will absolutely be relied upon to push his own game - and the Bayern offense - to the next level. Tonight, against weaker competition than he will face on a weekly basis in the Bundesliga, Coman just didn’t excel like you would hope he would. He wasn’t bad by any means, he just wasn’t good enough. With Pep Guardiola putting out a patchwork lineup, Coman should have been able to do a little more with his opportunities than he did. Hopefully over the coming weeks he can find that form that has made so many Bayern fans excited about his potential for this season.