Niko Kovac downplays Bayern Munich’s perfect record

Niko Kovac has got Bayern Munich off to a perfect start. Having won all seven of their competitive matches this season, Bayern are sitting atop the Bundesliga table after 4 matchdays. Kovac is on track to break a record set by Carlo Ancelotti when the Italian led Bayern to 8 consecutive wins to start off the 2016/2017 campaign. The record would’ve been held by Pep Guardiola, but his Bayern side lost the DFL Supercup in each of his three seasons at the helm.

If Bayern beat both Augsburg and Hertha Berlin this week, they’ll have won 9 consecutive matches, and Kovac will hold the new record, but he’s not too worried about that right now. Speaking in his pre-Augsburg (via Bild) press conference, Kovac was quick to downplay all of the hype surrounding his perfect start as Bayern manager thus far:

Every streak eventually comes to an end sometime. What matters to me is that we are well off.

He went on to say that he doesn’t want anyone in the squad getting too comfortable, which could invite complacency to creep its way in:

I warn about viewing everything too much through rose-colored glasses. Many people praise us, and justifiably.But we cannot allow ourselves to become careless. We are being hunted by everyone. The head is key. There will be games where we drop points. We won’t let ourselves be lulled asleep by the statements of colleagues.

Despite his reluctance to get carried away with the perfect start, Kovac also stressed the importance of taking the maximum number of points from the four fixtures that lie between now and the start of the next international break in October:

We now want to play the next for games until the international break positively.

No match in either the Bundesliga or Champions League is a formality, but Bayern have shown that they are a well-oiled machine under Kovac, even with the handful of injuries they’ve suffered. They face two difficult tests in the league against surprise package Hertha Berlin and a resilient Borussia Mönchengladbach, with a visit from Ajax in between in the Champions League. Without question, this will be the most difficult stretch Kovac will have faced in his Bayern tenure.

(Photo by A. Beier/Getty Images for FC Bayern)