Bundesliga midseason report: The wide-open race to break Bayern Munich’s dominance

With the Bundesliga at its annual winter break, we take stock of the wide-open title race between RB Leipzig, Borussia Monchengladbach, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and more.

The door is open. At the very least, it’s ajar.

For the last seven seasons Bayern Munich have had the Bundesliga title under lock and key, but a number of rivals now have plans to raid the Bavarians. Their poor start to the 2019-20 campaign has raised the prospect of a new German champion.

RB Leipzig, for one, are staking their claim. Germany’s most controversial club currently leads the way at the top of the Bundesliga table having lost just two league games all season.

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Julian Nagelsmann has been considered German soccer’s next great coach for years, becoming Hoffenheim manager at just 28, and he now been given a platform to build a side in his own image.

Their ownership structure might make them unpopular in a country that values representation of fans and communities in soccer, but RB Leipzig have become one of Europe’s shrewdest operations. As recently as 2010, they were in German soccer’s fifth tier. By 2016, they were a Bundesliga club and by 2017 they were in the Champions League. Now, they might be German champions-elect.

Nagelsmann isn’t the only one to have built something special this season, though. In Marco Rose he has a worthy adversary who also, somewhat ironically, also flourished under the Red Bull umbrella. Rose is the coach credited with turning Red Bull Salzburg into the team they are today, leading the Austrian club on a Europa League run in back-to-back seasons, and now he has a new project in Borussia Monchengladbach.

The Foals have been one of the Bundesliga’s most entertaining, dynamic teams this season. What’s more, they are just two points off top spot, underlining their title credentials with a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich at the start of the month. Rose, as a character and a coach, has been compared to Jurgen Klopp and his Gladbach team does evoke the spirit of the Borussia Dortmund side that toppled Bayern Munich in 2011 and 2012.

Dortmund themselves are also in the mix around the top end of the table, although their season has been difficult to decipher so far. They are just seven points off RB Leipzig’s pace, but there’s a sense that Lucien Favre won’t be at the Westfalenstadion for much longer. Fans argue that Dortmund are currently less than the sum of their parts with Favre’s lack of an overarching philosophy also the subject of complaints.

Further down the table, David Wagner has enjoyed a good start to life at Schalke. The sleeping giant of German soccer might not have fully awoken, but the former Huddersfield Town coach has at least got them opening their eyes again, sitting in fifth place at the midway point of the season. It’s a vast improvement on the relegation scrap Schalke found themselves in last season.

Not for a decade has the Bundesliga been as open as it is now.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Bayern Munich rally back just as they did last season. They still boast the deepest and most talented group of players in the Bundesliga with interim manager Hansi Flick steadying the club following the sacking of Niko Kovac.

If Robert Lewandowski keeps scoring at his current rate (the Polish striker has 19 goals in 17 Bundesliga appearances) it’s entirely feasible that Bayern Munich could claw their way back to the top. By the same token, though, the continuation of Timo Werner’s scoring form (he has 18 goals in 17 appearances) would make RB Leipzig very difficult to catch.

For all that the Bundesliga has long been hailed as one of European soccer’s most competitive leagues, Bayern Munich’s untouchable status as perennial champions was compromising. This season, though, there is another edge. Revolution is in the air. The Bundesliga, and German soccer as a whole, has been reinvigorated.