Bayern Munich vs Schalke – what should we expect?

The pick of the weekend’s Bundesliga games sees leaders Bayern Munich visit Schalke in a bid to extend their 100% start to the season. They have banged in nine goals in just three games and the table already has an ominous look about it as the perennial champions peer down on their rivals. Schalke are tasked with halting their momentum, but last season’s runners-up have made a dreadful start to the new campaign. They will need to generate a colossal improvement in their performance levels if they are to get anything from this contest. If you want to find the best odds on the market make sure to inform yourself and read the Bet365 review.

According to the oddsmaker Domenico Tedesco’s men are 11/2 underdogs. That is a huge set of odds on a side that clinched second place last season, and it is surprising to see Schalke struggling so badly. They were brilliant for large swathes of the previous campaign, and many expected their squad to be ripped apart by the likes of Bayern in the summer. Leon Goretzka went to Bayern, Max Meyer left and Thilo Kehrer joined PSG for €37 million, but the rest of the squad remains largely intact.

Sebastian Rudy went the other way from Bayern to Schalke, while World Cup star Salif Sane looks like a shrewd buy at centre-back. Amine Harit, Mark Uth and Breel Embolo are all talented players, but things have just not clicked into gear for them. The season began in ignominious fashion as they lost 2-1 to Wolfsburg. They then slumped to a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Hertha Berlin in their second game, and then lost 2-1 away at Borussia Monchengladbach last time out. In that time they have been given two red cards, and confidence levels will be low after three straight defeats.

Bayern Munich are naturally their polar opposites, winning at will with impressive inevitability. New manager Niko Kovac has picked up where his predecessor left off, and his players exude confidence at every turn. Goals from Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben saw them past Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga curtain raiser, and they then thrashed Stuttgart away from home, with Goretzka on target, before securing a 3-1 victory over top four hopefuls Bayer Leverkusen last time out. Kovac’s troops continued that superb form into Europe as they went to Lisbon and picked up a 2-0 Champions League win against Benfica on Wednesday night.

Bayern have dominated the possession in all their games so far this season and Lewandowski is on fire, so they should have little trouble sweeping aside an underperforming Schalke side.

Opposition managers are queuing up to heap praise upon Kovac’s side. “You can see that every player at Bayern has incredible quality, and not only in attack,” said Leverkusen coach Heiko Herrlich, after his side’s defeat. “They’re venomous when they lose the ball. They counter-press immediately and go for every one-on-one. To some extent, they gave us a lesson today.”

It is always difficult to take over the reins at such a famous, successful club, but Kovac has done a great job of putting his stamp upon this team. “He has great qualities,” said star winger Franck Ribery. “You can see that in the way he leads us and talks to us. He’s analysed all the types of players in the team and knows how they tick, what they need, how he has to talk to them. It’s priceless.” These two teams could not be further apart right now and it would be a huge surprise if Bayern Munich did not pick up a convincing win at the weekend.

 

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