Bayern Munich will be looking to end a winless run of four league matches when they take on Bayer Leverkusen on Friday night.
Leverkusen, meanwhile, have only won one of their seven Bundesliga matches so far this season, and head to the Allianz Arena in 15th position in the table.
Match preview
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After scoring 20 goals in their first four matches of the season when including their 5-3 blitzing of RB Leipzig in the DFL-Supercup in late July, Bayern's title defence has significantly stuttered since, with three successive draws followed by a shock 1-0 defeat to Augsburg prior to the international break.
Despite dominating most of the proceedings as expected at the WWK Arena, with Julian Nagelsmann's side boasting 77% possession and 19 shots in total across the 90 minutes, Mergim Berisha's strike moments before the hour mark provided Augsburg with a second successive win against the Bavarians on home soil.
Nagelsmann will hope that the international break helps his players return re-energised and re-focused on rediscovering their winning ways, although his German contingent missed out on progressing to the UEFA Nations League semi-finals after losing at home to Hungary last Friday.
The defeat to Augsburg leaves Bayern five points behind league leaders Union Berlin and, perhaps more pertinently, three points behind Borussia Dortmund ahead of the Bavarians' trip to Westfalenstadion next weekend.
Although there remains plenty of time to cut those deficits down, the pressure is undoubtedly building on Nagelsmann, especially after last season's limp defeat to Villarreal in the Champions League quarter-final. Failing to win for a fifth consecutive league game against a team struggling as much as Leverkusen would only cause speculation surrounding his job security to grow.
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Indeed, Leverkusen suffered a nightmarish start to the campaign by losing six of their opening seven matches in all competitions - including an embarrassing 4-3 defeat to third-tier outfit Elversberg in the DFB-Pokal - but two successive draws have at least moved them outside of the relegation places.
Gerardo Seoane would have been disappointed to see his side squander leads in both matches, though, especially last time out at home to Werder Bremen, whose pressure finally paid off when Milos Veljkovic prodded home from close range to equalise in the 82nd minute.
Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky was majorly at fault for the concession as he flapped at a clearance, and it would be fair to say that it was not the Finland stopper's first catastrophic error of the campaign, after he fell behind the line with the ball in his hands in a defeat to Club Brugge in the Champions League.
Having usually been so reliable in his previous four seasons with Leverkusen, the loss of form of the club captain is symptomatic of a lack of confidence at the club, and Seoane may feel that he is being let down by some of his players.
However, like his counterpart on Friday evening, the 43-year-old is under significant pressure to quickly improve results, with his side's strong third-placed finish in the Switzerland boss' first season in charge only likely to buy him a certain amount of time in the job.
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Manuel Neuer and Leon Goretzka both missed Germany's Nations League matches against Hungary and England after contracting coronavirus, but the duo should be able to return to action for Bayern this weekend.
Lucas Hernandez, Kingsley Coman and Bouna Sarr are all expected to remain sidelined through injury for another few weeks at least, though, reducing Nagelsmann's selection options as he looks to find a winning formula once again.
Having only started one of Bayern's last five league games, Serge Gnabry could be selected from the outset in order to provide more cutting edge in the final third, with Thomas Muller potentially losing his place as a result.
Leverkusen, meanwhile, will travel without Andrey Lunev, Exequiel Palacios, Florian Wirtz, Amine Adli and Karim Bellarabi due to injury.
The expected absence of Lunev due to a hamstring injury denies Seoane the opportunity to drop Hradecky should he desire to after a poor run of form from his captain, with third-choice goalkeeper Niklas Lomb lacking experience at the top level.
Seoane could switch to a back five for the trip to Munich, with Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker acting as wing-backs, allowing Callum Hudson-Odoi and Moussa Diaby to combine in more central areas behind Patrik Schick.
Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Pavard, De Ligt, Upamecano, Davies; Kimmich, Goretzka; Sane, Musiala, Gnabry; Mane
Bayer Leverkusen possible starting lineup:
Hradecky; Kossounou, Tah, Tapsoba; Frimpong, Andrich, Demirbay, Bakker; Hudson-Odoi, Diaby; Schick
We say: Bayern Munich 3-1 Bayer Leverkusen
We expect the international break to have helped Bayern settle down and return to winning ways against Leverkusen on Friday.
The visitors undoubtedly have the offensive tools to hurt the Bavarians in transition, but they are lacking confidence themselves at present and do not generally deal with any setbacks or periods of sustained pressure very well.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Brett Curtis
