What else can you say about the start of the Bundesliga? Maybe: "Shit, I'm already tired again," as a young football fan put it seriously at the weekend after FC Bayern's impressive win against Eintracht Frankfurt. In the opening game on Friday evening, Bayern overran their opponents 6-1, after all the reigning Europa League winners and FC Barcelona conquerors. Together with the 5: 3 victory in the Supercup against RB Leipzig before, the record champions sent the message to the rest of the league in no uncertain terms: "We can score quite a few goals even without Robert Lewandowski and are striving for the 11th championship title in Follow on."
So everything as always. Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner summed it up after the game in a hushed voice: "If you become champions for ten years and invest 160 million, then I think you're also the favorite for the eleventh title".
The inevitable seems to have happened again. Bayern are so vastly superior to the rest of the league that the only question left in the championship fight is whether they will be crowned champions after the 25th, 28th or even after the 32nd matchday.
From the point of view of the competition, it is and remains a misery that has become structurally entrenched over the years. The financial gap is now so great that Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig would need years to catch up. BVB managing director Hans Joachim Watzke estimated the amount that Dortmund have to catch up in an interview with "kicker" at "150 million euros per year" in order to keep financially on an equal footing. For medium-sized clubs even "500 to 600 million euros". "How is that supposed to work?" Watzke asked rhetorically.
countermeasures? The call for a fairer distribution of TV money, as ex-Werder manager Willi Lemke recently (again) called for, regularly fades away. Maybe that's because the other clubs know: It's not just because of the money that Bayern are unrivaled.
It's also owed to her almost frightening ability to keep reinventing herself at the highest level. Years ago, numerous media (including Stern) and experts reported that Bayern had overslept the generation change after the departure of Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger, but it went smoothly and was managed wisely. After that, it was said that the new Bayern leadership under Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić could be overwhelmed with the gigantic legacy of Bayern greats Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. As far as can be ascertained so far: That too was a mistake.
And now the departure of top scorer Robert Lewandowski to FC Barcelona. Anyone who thought that Bayern might start to skid is mistaken. Coach Julian Nagelsmann formed a new offensive formation around newcomer Sadio Mané and super talent Jamal Musiala, which is more variable and scored eleven goals in two games against strong opponents. To do this, he quickly changed the basic formation from 3-5-2 to 4-2-2-2. It works beautifully, much to the league's chagrin.
