Pep Guardiola and Bayern Munich have started this season’s campaign off extremely slow, again showing last night that they aren’t ‘untouchable’. Already, it’s impossible for Pep to better what Bayern done last season after failing to win the German Super Cup, losing out 4-2 to a much more impressive Borussia Dortmund.

It always takes time for a team to get used to the playing styles when a new manager is brought in, and it’s certainly showing in the early games for Bayern Munich. Last night, Bayern rested a number of key players as they prepare for the Super Cup Final on Friday night against Chelsea. As expected, Bayern were pressing forward in the first half and eventually took the lead with a goal from Shaqiri just after the half hour mark. As the game went on however, cracks were beginning to show in the Bayern team and Freiburg were pushing for the equaliser. Bayern held on until the 86th minute when Freiburg finally broke the defensive wall of Bayern, catching out a less than impressive Dante. Freiburg fans went ballistic at the full time whistle, realising that they had held the might of Bayern to a 1-1 draw.

Last season, Bayern destroyed the whole of European football, and recorded 29 wins out of 34 in the league, drawing 4 and losing just 1. In doing so they scored 98 goals and conceded only 18. So far this season Bayern have played 4 games, winning 3 and drawing 1. The winning results have been 3-1, 1-0 and 2-0. Just 6 goals scored in 3 games, when you expect them to score 6 goals in every game.

Of course Bayern have dominated in every game they’ve played so far, but last night showed that if they don’t take the countless chances that they create, then they will regret it. I’ve managed to see three of the games that Bayern have played, and so far they don’t look anything like last years team. Last night it was Dante that was found out in the heart of the defence, when he was caught ball watching and it lead to the equalising goal from Freiburg. Dante hasn’t looked like the player he was last year, and before the draw last night he had already scored an own goal in the opening game of the season.

Bayern love an early goal and usually once they get the goal, they go on to win the game comfortably. At least that was the case last season. In the 4 games in the league so far, Bayern have managed to score in the first half in 3 of them, with goals before the 15th minute in 2 of them. In the other game, it was two goals in the last 20 minutes that secured the victory. They’ve also played one game in the German Cup which they won comfortably 5-0, but we won’t include this game as it was against a much ‘lesser’ opposition. But so far we are yet to see Bayern go on and really put a game to bed after scoring the early goal.

Pep is trying to change too much about a side that was already playing perfect football and it could end up coming back to haunt them come the end of the season. News filtered through yesterday that Thiago would be sidelined with an injury for seven weeks which will be a huge blow for Bayern. I still expect Bayern to beat Chelsea in the Super Cup on Friday, but Chelsea can take confidence from the early season form shown so far by Bayern.

Dortmund themselves have started the season pretty slowly after surprising everyone to beat Bayern in the German Super Cup, but they’ve still got their 100% record in tact. It’s been late goals keeping Dortmund going so far. But Dortmund can show this weekend now that they mean business and that they will do everything they can to take the title back from Bayern this season, and grab a two point lead on them. Obviously it’s very early on in the season, but with only 11 points dropped last season, every point will count this season in trying to topple the might of Bayern Munich. Can Dortmund do the impossible? Time will tell….

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