Thomas Müller comments on Bayern Munich’s sharp U-turn in the Bundesliga this season

Bayern Munich faces an absolutely crucial stretch of matches upon the conclusion of the international break where they are in desperate need of collecting points to help claw their way up from the fifth spot in the Bundesliga table. After the break for the UEFA Nations League matches an international friendlies, Bayern faces Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, and SC Freiburg, with two Champions League ties against Viktoria Plzen in between two of those matches. On paper, Dortmund and Freiburg are above them in the table, so they will be two of Bayern’s most difficult Bundesliga tests so far this season.

For Julian Nagelsmann’s sake, despite Bayern’s front office coming out and fully backing him under a heightened spell of scrutiny for recent results, hopefully Bayern can take at least seven to nine points from the trio of matches when they first get back. Otherwise, Nagelsmann could find himself in a heap of trouble.

Ahead of Bayern’s 1-0 loss at FC Augsburg, Thomas Müller spoke about the sharp U-turn Bayern’s season has taken thus far. After starting off with emphatic wins against Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Wolfsburg, and VfL Bochum, they suffered frustrating draws against Borussia Monchengladbach, VfB Stuttgart, and Union Berlin before eventually losing to Augsburg. In the Champions League their fortunes were far different, having dispatched both Inter Milan and Barcelona 2-0 to open up the group stages, but Müller knows that the club have not been consistent enough across all fronts thus far.

“Within a month and a half we experienced what makes FC Bayern and the world around it so special. After the first games, it was statistically the best start to the season in the club’s history - and after our three draws in the Bundesliga, it was the worst start to the season in twelve years,” Müller explained to Welt (via @iMiaSanMia).

From their opening three matches, it seemed like they were scoring goals for fun, but finishing has been a massive issue for Bayern in recent weeks, as they’ve only been able to register three goals from over 90 shots from their last three matches. Of course, both Yann Sommer and Rafal Gikiewicz had absolutely sensational performances against Bayern for Gladabch and Augsburg, respectively, but Bayern’s conversion rate is alarmingly low.

Obviously, with the wins against Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, Bochum, Inter, and Barcelona, we’ve seen just how deadly Bayern can be with their new look attack, playing without a natural striker in the wake of Robert Lewandowski leaving for Barcelona. They have hit a wall, though, and have not been showing the quality the possess in the final third. Müller knows that the level of consistency has to improve moving forward. “We beat two big opponents in the Champions League, Inter and Barcelona. In other games we weren’t consistent enough or we didn’t deliver the results we were hoping for,” he explained.

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