Feature: Forget about Real for now

The German Bundesliga starts second half of the 2014/2015 season this Friday night with a thrilling curtain raiser between second placed VfL Wolfsburg and top of the table Bayern Munich. Millions of fans, not only in Germany but around the world, want to find an answer to the question: Does anybody have a chance of stopping Bayern in Germany?

However, that seems to be not the only question involving the top German team. Currently 11 points ahead of the pack, German champions Bayern see themselves as being in the middle of an annoying inquisition.

Meanwhile, reactions in Munich are getting more and more edgy as the flood of assumptions and predictions get mountain high. Is Bayern strong enough to beat rivals Real Madrid this season? Is Bayern's squad too big with too many stars? Will Bayern start to lose concentration as soon as they win the German title, like they did last season when they also lost in the Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid? Is coach Pep Guardiola willing to extend his contract past 2016?

The events in the lead-up to the league start and the upcoming Champions League knock out stage in mid-February is nothing new but many of the problems stem from outside the club. But this time things seem to be even more intense as the club is much more in the spotlight of the football world than ever before.

"It would be a mistake to look too far into the future and think about questions nobody can answer today," said Dutch striker Arjen Robben. "There is way too much talk about Real Madrid. To remind everybody, the next round in the Champions League is against Schachtar Donezk," said Robben.

"Well guys I am happy with questions I have heard before. So let me ask one: Do we talk about Real today?" asked 2014 World Champion Thomas Mueller despite the main topic of the press get- together being the game against Wolfsburg.

"Such questions will come up over the next months and we have to deal with them, but it's not something we want to concentrate on," said Mueller.

"All we can say is that we are doing everything to avoid the mistakes we made done last year," added Robben.

As the Bundesliga seems to be no real challenge, Bayern is still trying to get successfully out of the blocks and keep up an extremely intense training-level. "Sometimes it is harder to score a goal in training than in a league game," said Mueller.

Their league rivals are talking about how to catch Bayern and asking if their dominance is affecting the league's reputation among fans that may start to see the Bundesliga as boring. "We don't care one little bit," said the Director of Football Matthias Sammer. "We will do everything that is needed to achieve our goals."

At least on answer to the question regarding the big squad full of stars was given before the league start. French genius Franck Ribery will miss at least the first game at Wolfsburg due to injury. Xerdan Shaqiri has left the club for Inter Milan and Pierre-Emile Hoejbjerg has gone on loan to FC Augsburg. Sammer and CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge are constantly pointing out that there will be injuries or bans over the next month.

"It might be a luxury problem to have so many good players. But the club wants to win titles as we players do. Therefore it's not important if everybody goes to bed with a smile on his face," said Mueller. Rummenigge points out the importance of having " players that are not satisfied when they are not on the pitch."

When Philipp Lahm, Thiago Alcantara and Javier Martinez return, Bayern's midfield will be jam-packed with stars; up front, in addition to striker Robert Lewandowski, Mario Goetze, Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben will be trying to make the starting eleven as will Dante, Mehdi Benatia, Holger Badstuber, David Alaba and Juan Bernat do in the defense. Lower down the pecking order, Sebastian Rode, Gianluca Gaudino and Mitchell Weiser will also trying to get a place in the team.

Despite that one, thing seems to be clear: Bayern is under enormous pressure as many see a strong connection between possible success and the future of coach Pep Guardiola. Meaning: If Bayern fails to reach the Champions League final in Berlin, this might mean Guardiola will have second thoughts about his engagement in Munich.

"I told Pep Guardiola in the winter break that the question about his contract will pop up and we agreed to talk about his contract at the end of the season. We have treated the topic, and indeed everything, in a relaxed fashion," said Rummenigge. "We all know that the real Champions League will start with the knock- out stage, meaning now. One bad day and you are out," said Rummenigge.

Former Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn seems to be skeptical: "A workaholic like Pep Guardiola won't stay for much longer at a club as his extremely intense way of working requires an immense amount of energy."

Some regard it as an advantage that Bayern has to start against two of the strongest teams of the Bundesliga as the duel against Schalke 04 follows the one against Wolfsburg. "We are all extremely concentrated and are looking forward to the start as we do regarding the next month. You can feel how extremely focused everybody is," injured team-captain Philipp Lahm said. Endite