Team Focus: Bayern Munich

Less than a month ago, the carnival of chaos that is the FC Bayern boardroom was in full swing with the Bavarians dropping eight points behind Borussia Dortmund and trailing FC Basel in their Champions League Last 16 clash.

Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Ruminnegge had apparently addressed the players in the lead-up to their match with FC Basel emphasising the importance of over-turning the deficit in the wider picture of their season.

Perhaps the rocket by the FC Bayern board members was exactly what Jupp Heynckes' men needed a fortnight ago. It certainly worked and the German giants bounced back in stunning fashion with an incredibly one-sided 7-1 victory over TSG Hoffenheim at the Allianz Arena. The Reds were at their best with Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery in outstanding form on the day.

After 20 goals in three matches, FC Bayern are back. But they are still five points behind current league-leaders Dortmund with the top-two clashing on April 11 at the imposing Westfalenstadion. The Bavarians are comfortably the highest-scorers in the division with 64 league goals in 26 matches and have just 17 conceded, the third lowest in the Bundesliga.

Despite the five-point gap, Bayern have been one of the strongest sides across the season with an average possession-per-match stat of 65% showing their dominance in the German top-flight. They have won 57% of aerial duals this season, have an overall pass accuracy of 86% and have had, on average, 16 shots per match which is joint-highest with Borussia Dortmund.

The latter statistic does not come as a surprise given Bayern have scored five-or-more goals in a match, six times this season in all competitions.

However, the supposed “crisis” at the Allianz Arena has only really come about in the ruckrunde (second half of the season) with Bayern being less-than-impressive in most of their fixtures and losing to Gladbach and Leverkusen. They also slumped to two away draws at relegation-candidates Hamburg SV and Freiburg, who themselves were bottom of the league at the time.

At this point in the campaign, Bayern have four representatives in the WhoScored 'Bundesliga Team of the Season' with Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery all involved with eight matches to play.

Key to Bayern's success this season and recent revival is “Robbery”, which is the affectionate name for the wing-duo of Robben and Ribery. The Frenchman cost the Bavarians nearly ￡25m in 2007 and has largely failed to be classed as one of Europe's best footballers until this season, with some sparkling performances.

The 28-year-old has played 23 times for his club this term with a WhoScored rating of 7.92 and 11 goals and assists in the league. He has won five 'man of the match' awards and has reached a pass-accuracy of 85.1% from 1238 attempts with 49.5 passes per match and 2.3 key passes a game over his appearances.

His Bayern team-mate is a year younger and is set to join a thrilling Netherlands attack at Euro 2012 with Robin Van Persie and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. However, Robben has missed long spells of the campaign through a variety of injuries and has made just 12 starts in the Bundesliga so far. His lack of match-time makes his current statistics even more remarkable with 10 league goals, three assists and four 'man of the match' awards.

Robben's passing ability is up there with Ribery – 78.1% completion – and his attacking contribution from the right-hand side is integral with, on average, 2.2 key passes, 2.8 dribbles and 3.1 shots per match.

With the aforementioned duo on frightneing form of late, there is only man who will flourish in that environment – Mario Gomez.

The 26-year-old striker has a superb scoring record of 22 goals in 25 matches, including eight goals in his last three matches. Gomez has a WhoScored rating of 7.51 with four assists, an average of 3.2 shots per game and 1.2 key passes per game.

To some, one of the reasons that Bayern have struggled in the second half of the season was the injury to German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The 27-year-old's reputation has increased ten-fold in the last 18 months or so with some outstanding displays for the German club. As an established member of the national team, he has continued that into his club form but this year, has made just 14 starts. His WhoScored rating is 7.75 and his passing ability has received acclaim with 86.2% accuracy from 1164 attempts and an average of 77.2 passes per game.

In Schweinsteiger's absence, one of the success stories of the Bundesliga this season has been the form of 22-year-old Toni Kroos, who has taken time to establish himself as a regular at Bayern following an 18-month loan spell at Leverkusen.

Kroos is, arguably, one of the most complete midfielders in the league and in 23 appearances, has a WhoScored rating of 7.61 through three goals, six assists and two 'man of the match' awards. His pass completion ratio is the highest in the Bayern side at 87.9% from 1428 attempts.

After a few weeks of Dortmund looking likely to secure their second league championship in consecutive years, the pendulum seems to be swinging back in favour of Bayern Munich with some awesome performances of late ahead of their April 11th clash in Dortmund.

With eight games to play, Bayern still have a bit to go to catch Jurgen Klopp's men but overall, their title run-in is more favourable compared to Dortmund, with matches against Nurnberg, Augsburg, Mainz, Hannover and Cologne to come.