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It was only two weeks back that everything was in order at the Saebener Strasse. The German Super Cup had been secured with a thumping 5-0 drubbing of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Comfortable wins were recorded over the likes of Hoffenheim, Stuttgart, Leverkusen and Schalke in the Bundesliga. Benfica were mauled at home in the UEFA Champions League. A seven-game winning streak had ensued.
Bayern Munich were performing to expectations. And then all it took was an equalizer from ex-player Felix Gotze to turn the tides completely.
Since being held by Augsburg in Gameweek five of the Bundesliga, the Bavarians have gone on a winless streak of four games, one which involved a humiliating 0-3 loss at home to Borrusia Monchengladbach last Saturday.
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Niko Kovac, who was acclimatizing well to life at the Allianz Arena, now sees reports of him being in the reckoning of a premature boot from the organization.
But what gave way? How did Die Roten's perfect season turn upside down so quickly? What are the reasons behind the Bavarians' lacklustre showing of late? Let's have a look.
#1 Paper-thin squad
When it comes to a fit and firing squad, Bayern Munich have had no respite from lady luck. Time and again the marquee players have been subject to fitness issues during crucial junctures of the season.
This time though, injury troubles have haunted the defending Bundesliga champs right from the get-go.
Kingsley Coman showed a lot of promise during the preseason and it was predicted that he would eventually cement his position in the starting XI over the course of this season.
However, he went down with an ankle injury in the first half of the first game against Hoffenheim, effectively being sidelined until December.
Corentin Tolisso ruptured his ACL and is set to miss most of the season. Further injuries to Rafinha, David Alaba and Leon Goretzka means that the pressure on the already depleted squad is mounting.
The sale of Juan Bernat to Paris Saint-Germain means that the Bavarians currently boast of only one fit full-back in the entire squad.
Bayern's only new arrivals this season included a returning-from-loan player in Serge Gnabry and free transfer joinee in Goretzka. The outbound players tallied to a total of three (Bernat, Arturo Vidal and Sebastian Rudy).
The injuries and thus the subsequent lack of squad depth means that Bayern have to still rely on the old and depleting legs of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, who, at 35 and 34 respectively, aren't setting the world on fire.
In their first UCL tie against Benfica in Lisbon, Die Roten could only name 17 senior squad players for the game.
With all these injuries in place, the Allianz Arena outfit will have to manage with this small set of players for at least this month, before the sidelined players start returning to match fitness. Whether they will be able to hold fort till then or not is a question for another day.
#2 Rotation policy
If there's one clearly evident strategy that the Croatian has brought to Allianz Arena from his days at Frankfurt, it's the policy of squad rotation.
Kovac is yet to name a squad without any changes from the previous game in the Bundesliga. While it brought him great acclaim early on in the season, Niko Kovac's rotation policy has received much flak of late.
Most pundits would argue that a rotating squad allows the bench players to gel well with the squad and gives every player in the squad a decent opportunity to discover form early on in the season. It also allows you to try and test combinations which can be the go-to selections for certain oppositions in the future.
However, what it also does is, is that it doesn't allow players to settle down and establish chemistry with other teammates.
The same has been visible in the Bayern back line where a constantly rotating trio of Niklas Sule, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels has resulted in the breakdown of communication on several instances and Die Roten have succumbed to counter-attacks rather regularly.
On the offensive side of things, the midfielders have often failed to link up well with the forwards and been unable to thread the opposing defence with a telling pass.
Not only that, just the notion of not getting to start games on a regular basis can upset players and thereby disrupt player concentration when on the field.
Bayern president Uli Hoeness was quick to note that Kovac's rotation policy could stir trouble for the 2013 UEFA Champions League winners and he has been proven correct thus far.
#3 Failing to bench non-performing players
This isn't something new about Bayern. The club, over the last 4-5 years, has had a tendency to back senior players to regain form and even offered them with contract extensions when they are clearly past their prime.
While the said players have reaffirmed that faith with significantly improved performances, later on, the same has not been the case this time.
Thomas Muller had a fantastic start to the Bundesliga campaign wherein he contributed with two goals and an assist in the first two games of the season.
In the next five outings though, he has managed a solitary assist and has often looked like a fish out of the water. He has started 6 games and come off the bench in one fixture.
Muller has played as a No.10, a left midfielder, a central midfielder, and even as the second striker and flattered to deceive everywhere.
The Raumdeuter still started the game against Gladbach on Saturday in the midfield while James Rodriguez had to be shifted out of position on the left flank in order to incorporate the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot winner.
Coman's injury acts as a precedent as to why Robben has been given an extended run in the playing XI.
However, preferring Franck Ribery over Serge Gnabry despite the Frenchman's lack of impact on games is rather flabbergasting. Against Ajax last week, Gnabry was more of a threat in the 15 minutes that he played than Ribery for the rest of the match.
Lack of considerable playing time was the reason why Sebastian Rudy left for Schalke at the beginning of this season.
James Rodriguez has been reportedly unhappy with his role too at Bayern and he is a player the Bavarians cannot afford to let go of. It's time Niko Kovac takes the bold step and puts the non-performing players on the bench.
#4 The board
Over the past few seasons, Bayern Munich have been able to pull off several coups when it comes to the transfer market. Signing a prolific striker such as Robert Lewandowski and an adept box-to-box midfielder in Leon Goretzka for free is a massive feat. However, the club is still reluctant to spend, let alone spending big.
Last season, contract extensions were offered to Ribery, Robben and Rafinha, all players way past their primes and on the wrong side of the 30s. Many called for fresh blood to be injected into the team at the start of this season so that the soon-to-be deadweight could be phased out of the club over the course of this season. But the board categorically denied saying Die Roten does not need more players for the time being.
"The squad is too big at the moment. That means we’ll have to give up one, two, [or] three players at least by Christmas, because otherwise we will have unrest. That’s why we certainly will not make big incoming transfers but rather, if possible, make fairly big transfers away from us." - Uli Hoeness (via Bild)
Hoeness will surely be chewing back on his words right now given the state of the Bayern squad with all these injuries.
However, the highlighting factor is that despite repeated instances of injuries derailing Bayern's campaign in the past, the board is still reluctant to spend.
Had Bayern bought decent reinforcements for the outgoing Juan Bernat, the Bavarians would not be having only one fit full-back right now.
Talking about Niko Kovac, even if he fails to steady the ship at Bayern, blame must fall on the board too for handpicking him as the successor to Jupp Heynckes, especially with many of the opinion that the former Frankfurt manager was signed hastily after Thomas Tuchel rejected an offer to take charge at the Allianz Arena.
#5 Teams don't fear Bayern anymore
Much of Bayern's dominance in the Bundesliga has been down to the fact that opposition teams afforded too much respect to the defending champions. Teams would often sit deep allowing Bayern the major chunk of the possession and then would try to counter.
However, all of this changed since the game against Augsburg. Manuel Baum set up his squad to press from the front instead of playing the low block and it worked wonders for them.
Although Augsburg did not score a goal until the dying embers of the game, they did maintain pressure on the Bayern defence throughout the match which finally cracked open to allow Felix Gotze to score against his former club in the 86th minute.
Since then, both Hertha and Gladbach played with a positive, win-minded spirit against the Bavarians and reaped rewards.
Bayern's failure to respond to counter-attacks has been telling so far this season and the same was the reason behind their downfall against both these teams.
Against Ajax also, the away side brought the game to the Bavarians. Had it not been for some fine goalkeeping by Manuel Neuer and some scuppered chances by the likes of Dusan Tadic and Donny van de Beek, the visitors could have easily won by a margin of two to three goals.
