Next Saturday, 30th of August 2014, the German reigning champions, Bayern Munich, will travel to North Rhine-Westphalia to measure forces with Schalke 04 at the Veltins-Arena for the second round of the Bundesliga.

It is fair to say that Bayern Munich experienced some unexpected difficulties to beat Wolfsburg on their opening match of the season. Pep Guardiola’s boys, in a way, controlled the match but they failed to materialize their dominance into more goals and were almost caught red handed after Ivica Olic’s stunning goal, which got Wolfsburg back into the match early in the second half.

The Spanish manager experimented a new tactical approach and implemented several changes into his team for the season’s first match. Guardiola “abandoned” the 4-1-4-1 tactical model that had provided plenty of consistency last season and opted for a bold 3-4-3 style with Robben, Müller and Götze working as Lewandowski’s feeders. This new demanding approach takes time to implement and so far Bayern still seem miles away from a consistent and free flowing performance, given all the requirements this style presents.

For next Saturday’s match against Schalke 04, who are, by the way, going through a particularly negative moment, the Spanish head coach will most certainly still not be able to count on the contribution of some of the team’s most important players, such as Ribery and Schweinsteiger, who are currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Schalke 04, things are far from being bright at the moment and a match against the Bundesliga reigning champions might only give the team’s manager, Jens Keller, more reasons to be worried about. After being eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by the historical Dynamo Dresden, who currently at the German football third tier, Schalke continued their miserable campaign on their Bundesliga’s opening match, as they sucumbed at the hands of Hannover 96 by 2-1. Despite being favourites for the match and after Klaas Jan Huntelaar opened the score on the 47th minute, Die Knappen were surprised by Hannover, which scored twice in just three minutes.

For the match against Bayern, Jens Keller will probably not be able to rely on the contributions of Uchida, Obasi, Goretzka and Farfan, all of them sidelined due to injury.

When both sides went head-to-head at the Veltins-Arena last season, Bayern completely hammered the home side by 4-0, on their triumphant walk towards the Bundesliga title. For the next Saturday’s match, the lightning might just strike twice in the same location and Bayern could walk away from the Veltins-Arena with another staggering win over what seems to be a fairly fragile Schalke side at the moment.

Schalke 04

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLLDL

Bayern Munich

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WWLLW

Possible Line-ups

Schalke 04 (4-2-3-1) - Fährmann - Ayhan - Höwedes - Matip - Kolasinac - Boateng - Neustäder - Sam - Draxler - Choupo-Moting - Huntelaar

Bayern Munich (3-4-3) -  Neuer - Dante - Boateng - Alaba - Lahm - Gaudino - Bernat - Göetze - Robben - Müller - Lewandowski

Prediction

Schalke 04 0 Bayern Munich 2