Bayern no longer talking about 7th straight Bundesliga title

No one at Bayern Munich is talking about a seventh consecutive Bundesliga title anymore.

The club is back in crisis with coach Niko Kovac likely to pay the price for the team's failure to reinforce the squad in the offseason.

Bayern's 3-3 draw against relegation-threatened Fortuna Duesseldorf has left the defending champions nine points behind Borussia Dortmund after 12 matches.

It was Bayern's fourth consecutive league game at home without a win, prompting Germany forward Thomas Mueller to note: "I never experienced that before." It is, indeed, a record for the club.

The 47-year-old Kovac is in trouble in his first spell in charge of a major club. Kovac previously enjoyed success with Eintracht Frankfurt, helping the side beat Bayern in the German Cup final last May, but he is struggling to get his current team playing as cohesively as his former.

It doesn't help that Frankfurt is now two points ahead of Bayern, which is languishing in fifth place.

The last time Bayern was nine points off the lead was in the 2011-12 season. Dortmund was champion at the end.

"It's not right to look at the table now," Bayern defender David Alaba said.

Teammate Leon Goretzka said the club needed to "pay attention to other things" after failing to beat Duesseldorf, a team that remains one point off the bottom of the league.

Bayern president Uli Hoeness, who previously said he would defend Kovac "to the hilt," appears to have changed his tune after blasting the team's performance on Saturday.

"What happened today is absolutely not acceptable," said Hoeness, who said Kovac would remain in charge for the Champions League game against Benfica on Tuesday but made no commitment beyond that.

"We have to analyze the situation to see where we are. For us it's important to remain calm. It's difficult, I admit that."
"You could see that again today, where amateur mistakes were made. When I look at the first goal, I'd only seen such a thing in slapstick films. Of course it can't work like that."
"I personally have a very good relationship with Arsene Wenger, whom I respect for a long, long time."