MUNICH, GERMANY – JANUARY 24: Raphael Guerreiro of FC Bayern München celebrates with teammates after … [+]
This season the team from Germany catching everyone’s attention is not FC Bayern Munich, but Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Guided by the tactical prowess of exciting young manager Xabi Alonso and powered by the incredible goalscorer exploits of striker Victor Boniface the side has put together a series of remarkable results.
Stats show Bayer 04 is the only club in Europe’s top five leagues yet to register a loss, winning 24 of the 27 games it has played.
Unsurprisingly it left the club top of the Bundesliga at the midway point and earned it the accolade of ‘Wintermeister’ or winter champions.
There is, of course, no actual silverware for leading the division in the manner Bayer 04 does, but the scintillating form has encouraged many to suggest, that this year, just might be the moment when FC Bayern fails to win the league championship.
It is true that throughout 12 successive Bundesliga crowns, the Bavarians have never faced a challenger with a record as good as Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s.
In fact, on many occasions, much to the embarrassment of the German game, FC Bayern has not ever had to play at full throttle to achieve success.
The disproportionate abundance of talent the Allianz Arena plays host to makes it incredibly difficult for even the most canny rivals, like Borussia Dortmund, to unseat the champions.
Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham are just three of the incredible stars Dortmund assembled who all ultimately left without being able to hold the trophy aloft.
The problem has been that, regardless of how good other teams might be, when FC Bayern Munich strings a few results together it is impossible to stop.
This is not to say that there haven’t been wobbles in Bavaria over the years, at some point in most seasons the club has directed attention inward in an attempt to tackle any complacency caused by a sequence of unbroken success.
COLOGNE, GERMANY – MAY 27: Manuel Neuer of FC Bayern Munich lifts the Bundesliga Meisterschale … [+]
In 2016, as FC Bayern sought to make it five league titles in a row former defender David Alaba warned of the dangers of taking things for granted after a shock DFB-Pokal exit to Werder Bremen.
“They will work even harder, especially after their struggles in the cup,” he told Bayern’s TV channel. “Now they come to the Allianz Arena to face Bayern where they will be hoping to up their game. We need to take that into account and deal with it.”
It was a similar story a year later when, after letting a 2-0 lead versus Wolfsburg slip, German outlet DW published an opinion piece claiming “Bayern Munich’s complacency could cost them.”
And just two years ago, after making the signing of Matthijs de Ligt, ex-CEO Oliver Kahn warned of the battle to avoid resting on laurels.
“It’s a little bit dangerous to fight against complacency. Maybe some players feel a bit too comfortable, they think that everything will go on like it was in the past,” he explained.
But in the end, the result was always the same. It appeared FC Bayern had let things, then the club regrouped and won the title.
On some occasions that meant a midseason change of manager. In 2016 Carlo Ancelotti was disposed of in the bid to retain the crown, while just last year Julian Nagelsmann was axed for Thomas Tuchel.
Kahn, despite his rhetoric, was also removed from the boardroom in one of the many culls that demonstrated no one is safe from the high expectations at the club.
It has been suggested that there is more unrest at FC Bayern this year, particularly after negative results.
For example, Thomas Tuchel’s angry postgame comments following defeat to Werder Bremen last week were interpreted as indicating some simmering crisis.
‘That is our responsibility. ‘I’m also tired of saying that we’re training well. Nobody believes that anymore,” he bemoaned after the loss.
“I’ve been doing the job long enough to be able to judge whether the training was at the level we want it to be. This has been the case for many weeks.”
Sounding very much like Alaba or Kahn, Tuchel claimed the team was not firing on all cylinders.
“When you sign for a club like Bayern Munich, you sign for one hundred percent. That applies to the coach, that applies to the players. We didn’t deliver that today,” he raged.
“We played as if we were 10 points ahead and still had a Champions League game on Tuesday.”
The response to the defeat against Werder was, of course, victory in the next game against Union Berlin.
This means, despite claims Bayern is in crisis or in danger of losing its Bundesliga streak, it is just four points adrift of Bayer 04.
Should the Bavarians keep pace with its rivals it will have the opportunity to cut the gap to one point when the two sides meet in a fortnight.
This is hardly a position of weakness, FC Bayern has overcome far more difficult situations in the past.
Regardless of whether Tuchel leaves or there is more turmoil at the club history shows we can expect it to be challenging.
So the question is less; will FC Bayern be there and more can Bayer 04 maintain its extraordinary run?
Reports Of FC Bayern Munich’s Decline Are Greatly Exaggerated – Forbes
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