Just got back from the match.
One thing to point out, just to give you an indication. The game was a sell out for Mainz, they seriously wanted to win it, they made more noise than they probably did all season last year because of who they were playing. They even had a couple of players diving in the box....in a frickin friendly ffs
That said, a number of observations :-
Pennant looked dangerous, quick and stronger than I thought he would be, had a tendency to drift inside a bit, leaving the wing exposed, but generally pretty good.
Bellamy looked sharp and above all bloody quick whilst managing to keep his head up.
Stevie G looked solid as always but not quite ticking tonight
Xabi was much the same
Carra was immense, I think someone forgot to mention to him it was a friendly lol
Anderson looked really good, aggressive, quick and not afraid to get stuck in
Hypia was his usual calm and assured self

Crouch seemed out of sorts, but was getting bundled all over the place, I remember after some of the challenges shouting to Mainz that it was only a bloody friendly...
Kronkamp seems to be a better wingback than a full back - He got caught out of position quite a lot and didn't seem to track back enough
Zenden had a shocking first half, but started to show some good stuff in the second
Garcia was very impressive when he came on
Same for Riise
Hobbes looked like noone had really given him any information, but he wasn't as bad as some are suggesting
Traore was awful, absolutely no idea how to hold a line and going forward was worse. If this is the shop window, someone just stuck a 50% off sign right in front of him tbh
Diao - Well the highlight was that at least he got a laugh from the crowd....
The biggest worry for me was Carson. This lad is our number 2, and his decision making is woeful, 3 times in the space of 5 minutes he came bounding out of his box for a ball that he was never going to get to, only to make a total hash of it and carra et al had to scramble back and make last ditch challenges for... I am never sure if the decision making aspect of the game is something that can be instilled in a keeper - Something tells me it is more of a natural instinct....if thats the case, he is in trouble.
Travelling Kop...we were in full voice, enjoying the German Beer and YNWA was belted out as loud as I can remember. My kids loved their first experience.
Like I said earlier, the thing you probably couldn't get from a stream or audio commentary was just how much Mainz wanted to win this game, total sell out crowd, the noise was immense - Nothing like I was expecting from a friendly. The challenges and tempo they played the game was the demonstration of a team with desire. At the end of the match they were cheering like they thought it was a cup final or something, even fireworks, flags on cars and bloody horns going.
Unfortunately, we had very little desire and it genuinely looked like a kick about for our lads.
Am I

Am I concerned about the CL Qualifier or Community Shield on the back of this game?...No - Do I think that when it makes a difference the lads will come good again?...Yes
Rafa will have gotten out of this game what he wanted, confirmed a few things and will put it all together.
I better go to bed now - Frickin knackered after writing all that.....as I say to the missus.....sorry about the length

YNWA