Fixture Pile-Up Means Guardiola Must Find Solution to Bayern Munich Woes Quickly

Bayern Munich haven't started 2015 in good form, as evidenced by their 4-1 loss to Wolfsburg on Friday. But with a whole host of fixtures piling up over the month of February, Pep Guardiola will have to sort out his team's issues before one bad result becomes a string of disasters. 

Although Wolfsburg will undoubtedly prove to be the most testing side Bayern play in the Bundesliga for the foreseeable future, the Bavarian club must also welcome the Champions League, and with it the threat of Shakhtar Donetsk, in the coming weeks. 

Schalke come to the Allianz Arena on Tuesday and will undoubtedly bring with them a new sense of belief, having watched Dieter Hecking's side counter-attack Bayern with such precision and ease. 

Although Roberto Di Matteo's side have often looked rather hot and cold this season, the Royal Blues have only lost one of their last seven league games and will remember a 1-1 draw with Bayern earlier in the season that left Guardiola demanding much more from his side. 

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Schalke play in a similar fashion to Wolfsburg—albeit it with lesser players—and in Max Meyer, Eric Choupo-Moting and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the club do have players who can hurt Bayern in the exact same way. Unless Guardiola sorts out how to address the inefficiencies in his high line, this perfectly capable team could pour more misery on the Bavarian faithful. 

In the two weeks that follow Guardiola's men will play no less than four games, with an away tie in Donetsk, (deepest Ukraine) offering very little time for Guardiola's side to recuperate or indeed work on the troubles that clearly bother the team. 

The three Bundesliga opponents—Stuttgart, Hamburg and then Paderborn—will offer little trouble for Bayern, as each side continue to struggle to pull themselves from their winter-break gloom. Between them we've seen one win from the last 12 Bundesliga games, and as such they should be nothing but cannon fodder for the Munich giants. 

What will truly trouble Guardiola is the prospect of facing Shakhtar with tired and untrained legs. 

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The Champions League is ultimately where Guardiola will earn his bacon at Bayern—with the league all but concluded, despite the recent defeat—and the Ukrainian side offer a genuine threat to the expectation that the German champions should at least challenge for Europe's biggest competition. 

Shahktar possess plenty of skill and pace on the break, with the likes of Douglas Costa, Alex Teixeira and Taison offering more than enough for the Spanish coach to chew over. Add to that nine goals in five games from Luiz Adriano in the Champions League this season, and you have a side almost perfectly designed to cause Bayern problems.

Guardiola's team are far from crisis, but a long, gruelling month waits in store for them, and it will be imperative for this Bayern side effectively fix their faults in time. 2015 will undoubtedly be a great year for the Bavarian champions, but if they're not careful they could be out of the Champions League before it's even really started.