Opinion: Bayern’s form bodes poorly for the Bundesliga

It wasn’t the pass Thiago Alcantara would have wanted from Alphonso Davies. Slightly behind him, the Spaniard checked his run to bring the ball under his spell. A deft body-swerve and jinking run left three Mainz defenders for dead, before he drilled it into the bottom corner to make it 3-0 to Bayern Munich after 26 minutes.

It was a thing of beauty, and effectively ended Mainz’s day before it started on a sodden Saturday afternoon in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Even Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Oliver Kahn, sat in the soft seats a few meters to the left of the press seats at the Opel Arena, rose to their feet to applaud the midfield maestro. Mainz couldn’t get close to him all day. 

The 3-1 win sent Bayern top of the Bundesliga for the first time since the end of October, when Niko Kovac’s stormy reign was approaching its end game. Three months off the summit is an eternity by Bayern’s standards, and it’s taken the stewardship of interim coach Hansi Flick to inspire Bayern to put up the kind of numbers not seen since Jupp Heynckes’ reign.

From an attacking perspective, Bayern are back in free-scoring mood going 2-0 up inside the first 15 minutes of a game for the first time this season, with the imperious Robert Lewandowski notching up his 22nd league goal of the season, the same number of goals he totalled in the entirety of last season. And even from a defensive perspective, albeit against a toothless Mainz side, Bayern are looking decent again. The goal Jeremiah St Juste’s scored for Mainz was the first Bayern have conceded in 2020, making them the last top-flight team in Germany to concede this year. 

One-team league

These stats make wonderful reading for Bayern fans, but it’s ominous for the rest of the Bundesliga. Borussia Mönchengladbach had been the pretenders to Bayern’s crown for a while, before briefly passing the baton on to RB Leipzig, but do either of them seriously think they will de-throne Bayern? Such thoughts should be reserved for the foolhardy. 

Ironic that on the same day that Bayern’s two closest challengers play each other, Bayern take control of the title race. Bayern have dominated the Bundesliga since the early 1970s, but their current period of sovereignty is as close to a monopoly as German football has ever experienced. It took the genius of Jürgen Klopp, whose name is still cherished here in Mainz, to interrupt Bayern’s dominance. But that was almost a decade ago.

Notwithstanding a half-hearted late Mainz revival, the gulf in quality between the opponents was almost embarrassing at times. Bayern were operating on a completely different plane to their opponents, but Mainz are the rule, not the exception. The truth is that even in a bad year, even with Leipzig steadily improving, even with the hottest young striker and winger in the world playing for Borussia Dortmund, no one can live with Bayern in Germany. For the Bundesliga, it’s a worry.

Bayern cannot be blamed as their business model is sound; their big-money commercial deals with the likes of Adidas, T-Mobile and Allianz are bred from homemade success, which has helped them consolidate their position. Their brand has been exported around the world, known and supported everywhere from Boston to Beijing.

Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League?

The Bundesliga can take solace in the fact that it’s not alone. Paris Saint-Germain have won France’s Ligue 1 in six of the past seven seasons, Barcelona and Real Madrid have won La Liga in 14 of the past 15 seasons, and even the Premier League, the self-styled ‘Best League in the world’ currently has Liverpool over 20 points clear and on course to win the title by the biggest points total and winning margin ever seen.

Despite the questionable methods in which some of the above clubs have gone from rich to bloody rich, there is a select band of super clubs calling the shots in Europe’s top leagues and it making the rich richer while the rest suffer.

Is it Bayern’s fault that they’re so much better than everyone else? Of course not. Is it the responsibility of the competing clubs to raise their game? Absolutely. But without the injection of huge sum of money from a likely dodgy source, is anyone capable of overhauling Europe’s super clubs in their domestic leagues? Don’t hold your breath. In fact, Bayern will win the title 100 times more before Mainz even have a sniff.

The question is, where will these kinds of one-sided games take leagues like the Bundesliga in future? The clubs around Bayern can’t wait for a once-in-a-generation talent like Klopp to briefly lift them into contention.

Europe’s domestic leagues are doomed. For the rest, the onset of a European Superleague can’t come soon enough. Not for the spectre of Europe’s elite doing battle week in, week out, may even be welcome so that the rest of Europe can have its game back.