What stood out in Bayern Munich’s win in the friendly against Aston Villa: extreme pressing with a surprising experiment!

Many years ago, football followed an approach that now looks pretty dubious: players spent the week doing little more than running and pumping iron so they would be "hungrier" for the ball at the weekend. There is, of course, no reason to think Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany has suddenly adopted that method. Their display in the 2-1 win over Aston Villa in Hong Kong still gave that impression.

At times, the Munich side hunted the ball as if this was not a friendly staged for the applause of Chinese fans, but a Champions League final, the title Kompany has named as the target. They pressed the visibly startled Villans on and often even inside their own penalty area with maximum aggression and forced a number of high regains.

Central to it all was Konrad Laimer. The all-rounder played as a hybrid of a No 10 and centre-forward and organised the extreme press like Thomas Müller in his prime. Laimer has mainly featured as a full-back for Bayern Munich, but he has already filled this central role several times for the Austria national team, for example at the World Cup in the win against Jordan.

Bayern Munich: World Cup players celebrate first starts of pre-season

Laimer's surprising position was very much down to necessity, because at this stage of pre-season Kompany has no high-class alternatives in the central attacking area. Harry Kane and Michael Olise are still on World Cup holiday and will only return to training after the team come back from the Asia tour. Jamal Musiala, new signing Ismael Saibari, Serge Gnabry and Lennart Karl are working on their comebacks in Munich.

Against Aston Villa, several World Cup players made their first starts of pre-season in defence: captain Manuel Neuer in goal, Jonathan Tah at centre-back alongside Min-Jae Kim, Nathaniel Brown at left-back, Aleksandar Pavlovic in the holding role alongside Tom Bischof. At right-back, sale candidate Sacha Boey delivered a decent performance.

Out wide, the two talents Maycon Cardozo (17) and Tim Binder (19) produced a few bright moments. Alongside Laimer, Arijon Ibrahimovic was initially Bayern's most noticeable player furthest forward, but he missed two good shooting chances. Next season, the 19-year-old academy product is planned as backup for Luis Diaz on the left wing.

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Bayern Munich: Min-Jae Kim and Luis Diaz score in win

For all their dominance and extreme pressing, Bayern Munich did too little with it. The tempo dipped after around half an hour, yet that was exactly when the Munich side went in front. In the 37th minute, Min-Jae Kim headed a Bischof free-kick into the net. Neuer did not have a single dangerous shot to save in the first half.

After his committed display in an unfamiliar role, Laimer stayed in the dressing room at half-time. Josip Stanisic replaced him and slotted in at left-back. Brown, who had started there, moved into Laimer's role as the leader of the press. Over the course of the second half, Luis Diaz, Joao Palhinha, Hiroki Ito, Bastian Assomo, Filip Pavic and Guido Della Rovere also came on. After several missed chances, Diaz made it 2-0 in the 74th minute with a fine strike from an Ibrahimovic assist. Joao Gomes scored in the 83rd minute to pull one back for Villa, and seconds later Neuer prevented the equaliser with a magnificent reflex save from Tammy Abraham.

That 2-1 win over Villa was Bayern Munich's third victory in their fourth friendly. After losing to third-division side SV Wehen Wiesbaden, Bayern Munich then beat FC Rottach-Egern and Jeju SK FC. On Saturday, the Munich side head back home. Exactly one week later, they face RB Leipzig at the Allianz Arena in their next friendly.

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