Bayern Munich enter international break in 5th place in the Bundesliga

The November international break is upon us, and Bayern Munich find themselves all the way down in 5th place following the completion of Matchday 11 in the Bundesliga. Who could’ve seen this coming?

Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, RB Leipzig, and Eintracht Frankfurt are all now looking down at the Bavarians.

Bayern’s performance in the seven games since returning following the October international break (Matchday 7) is commendable. The club picked up five wins, settled for one draw, and suffered one loss. That’s not terrible.

However, those seven matches were spread across three competitions and the non-wins were both in the Bundesliga.

The Cups

Bayern picked up a pair of 2-0 victories of AEK Athens in the UEFA Champions League. The six points pushed Bayern into an almost guaranteed spot at qualifying for the knockout rounds. Benfica will visit the Allianz Arena on November 27, and Bayern will advance with a draw.

The club also eked out a 2-1 victory over SV Rödinghausen in the second round of the DFB Pokal. The victory put Bayern into the Round of 16 against Hertha Berlin. That match will not take place until February 6.

Advancing in the cup competitions is always paramount to league play during the first half of the season. However, when you’re already trailing in the league, dropping more points in the league isn’t how you catch up.

The Bundesliga

Bayern only picked up seven out of a possible twelve points during that stretch of games. Obviously, their loss to Dortmund hurt, but the draw at the Allianz Arena against 11th place Freiburg is the more unacceptable result.

Let’s look at the teams that have now ahead of Bayern in the table:

• Dortmund won ten points
• Gladbach won nine points
• Leipzig won eight points
• Frankfurt won ten points

So, while Bayern managed to pass two of the clubs who were ahead of them at the end of Matchday 7 (Werder Bremen and Hertha Berlin have combined to pick up five points. Those two are in free-fall.), they were passed by Frankfurt.

Bayern’s less-than-normal performance so far in the Bundesliga is being exacerbated by several other clubs performing above their normal level.

The Rest of 2018 in the Bundesliga

With all of that said, the rest of 2018 in the Bundesliga should be favorable to Bayern. With matches against three of the current bottom four teams, along with Werder, Bayern have the opportunity to string together a solid run of wins before ending the year with matches against Leipzig and Frankfurt.

The Rekordmeister is struggling at the moment, but you shouldn’t sleep on this team. Things could turn in an instant.